Controversial Dutch businessman arrested

Friday 26 October 2007

The controversial Dutch businessman Joep van den Nieuwenhuyzen has been arrested in Switzerland on fraud charges connected to the bankruptcies of several companies.

The Dutch authorities have requested Van den Nieuwenhuyzen be extradited to the Netherlands to stand trial.

According to today’s NRC.Next, some 60 civil servants from the financial investigation agency FIOD have been probing his business affairs since March 2005.

They suspect that the businessman profited personally from the bankruptcies of various companies through his investment fund RDM in 2004.

The paper says that Van den Nieuwenhuyzen’s right-hand man Leo van der V. has also been arrested and that there have been a number of raids in the Antilles, Germany, France and Belgium over the last few days.

Van den Nieuwenhuyzen hit the headlines several years ago when it appeared that the Rotterdam port authority had secretly agreed to stand surety for a number of what the NRC describes as ‘financially wobbly’ firms belonging to the RDM Group. The guarantees were for €180m.

When these companies collapsed, the banks called on the port authority to pay back loans. The council reached settlements with some creditors but are still entangled in legal procedures with others, says NRC.

A civil court has already ordered Van den Nieuwenhuyzen to pay back €18m which disappeared into other RDM companies, reports the paper.

Van den Nieuwenhuyzen has been connected to a number of controversial business deals over the past 15 years. He has also stood trial for insider trading but was not convicted.

© DutchNews.nl

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