Property tycoon must pay state €26m in criminal cash

Property tycoon Jan Dirk Paarlberg, found guilty earlier of money laundering, has been ordered to pay the Dutch state €26m by a court in Haarlem.

The court ruled this is money which Paarlberg has earned from criminal activities, in particular through his role as defacto banker for convicted blackmailer Willem Holleeder.

In 2010, Paarlberg was sentenced to 4.5 years in jail for laundering money which gangland boss Holleeder is said to have earned through blackmailing Willem Endstra, another property speculator who was murdered in 2004.

Holleeder has been convicted of blackmailing Endstra and two other men.

Paarlberg is currently appealing against that conviction. According to news agency ANP, Paarlberg currently lives in London and neither he nor his lawyer were in court to hear the verdict.

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