Dutch millionaire businessman Marcel Boekhorn, the man behind free newspaper De Pers, has been swindled out of almost €1.5m by a bankrupt English lorry driver, the Volkskrant reports on Friday.

The paper says Boekhorn was fooled into thinking he could buy London’s Ritz hotel from its owners, the secretive billionaire Barclay brothers, for a bargain price.
The driver, Tony Lee, posed as a property advisor for the brothers and approached another businessman, Terry Collins, with an offer he could not refuse – buy the Ritz at a bargain price, sell it on and split the proceeds.
All Collins needed was a £1m deposit. He approached Boekhoorn who flew to London with a team of advisors and agreed to make the loan.
Eventually he realised he had been tricked. Boekhoorn is now demanding his money back through the British courts. He declined to comment on the Volkskrant’s story.
For a full report on the court case, click here for the Daily Mail story.