Theatre impresario Joop van den Ende has pulled the plug on his own property company Living City because two directors are under investigation for fraud.

‘I do not want to have anything to do with this world,’ he told the Volkskrant in an interview on Thursday.
When the fraud came to light in November, Van den Ende demand the immediate resignation of the two directors, says the paper. But despite ‘serious efforts’ with the directors and shareholders to find a solution, no action was taken. The two men at the centre of Van den Ende’s decision to pull out were recommended to him by Amsterdam city council in 2005.
Van den Ende has now had enough. ‘I am 66 years old, I’ve worked all my life and I don’t want to spend my last years dealing with anything which cannot bear the light of day,’ he told the Volkskrant. Van den Ende underwent heart surgery in early March.
The decision means that ambitious building projects close to the Jaarbeurs in Utrecht, Zuidas business district in Amsterdam, the Bassin in Maastrich and Rotterdam’s Ahoy are all now on hold while the authorities find alternative developers and financing.
Van den Ende told the Volkskrant that another of his companies, Stage Entertainment, would continue with the construction of theatres, but would not be involved in any other developments.
‘It is a terrible shame, because I find city development really fascinating,’ he told the paper.