"No more money troubles," celeb texted accomplices in dodgy face mask deal
The government’s lawyer revealed new evidence in the civil case around the dodgy face mak deal showing that Sywert van Lienden and his partners, Bernd van Damme and Camiel van Gestel, were out to get rich from an early stage. The lawyer quoted from texts sent between the three entrepreneurs during a hearing in the case on Wednesday, NOS reports.
In April 2020, the deal seemed to fail. Van Lienden texted his partners: “So we won’t become multimillionaires after all.” A month later, when they were in the middle of negotiations with the Ministry of Public Health, he wrote: “Seriously: what we are now occasionally discussing really borders on premeditated fraud.” And after the deal was signed: “Now it’s really settled! No more money worries.”
Audio recordings that previously leaked showed the business partners talking about making a lot of money. “In any case, one requirement is that all four of us become screamingly rich, because it is one big middle finger from the government. I am seriously not going to do this voluntarily for anything,” Van Lienden said on that recording.
In the spring of 2020, the three agreed with the Ministry of Public Health, Welfare, and Sport for the supply of 40 million face masks from China. The impression was that the deal was with their foundation Stichting Hulptroepen Alliantie (SHA) and Van Lienden had previously publicly stated that he would work on a non-profit basis. It later turned out that they fulfilled the order on behalf of their commercial company Relief Goods Alliance (RGA), and not the foundation, at a substantial profit.
The State is demanding money back from the face mask deal. The SHA is also demanding compensation, saying that the three entrepreneurs abused the foundation to commit this fraud. According to ANP, the foundation and State proposed a settlement two weeks ago, but it did not lead to an agreement.
Van Damme’s lawyer accused the State’s lawyer of taking the text messages “out of context,” according to NOS. “You and I also say things at the kitchen table that we would rather not be confronted with publicly later.”
Van Lienden’s lawyer did not address the text messages at all, only focusing on Van Leinden’s motivation. According to the lawyer, Van Lienden has been socially involved from a young age and could not bear to see so many people die due to a lack of protective equipment.
Van Lienden himself also spoke in court, insisting that he would have preferred to make a non-profit deal through his foundation or help the State “as a kind of consultant” to bring face masks to the Netherlands. But the other parties did not want that, he said. “The choice was this or nothing.”
The hearing will resume later on Wednesday.
Separately from this civil case, the Public Prosecution Service (OM) is also criminally prosecuting the three men for fraud, embezzlement, and money laundering. The first hearing in the criminal case is scheduled for December 19.
