Asylum agency claims €185m from hotel reception middleman

The refugee settlement agency COA is claiming €184.7 million from René Derksen and his company LCHD, which arranged emergency accommodation for asylum seekers in hotels across the Netherlands, the Financieele Dagblad reported on Monday.

The agency has secured a claim against Derksen’s farmhouse in Didam, Gelderland, blocking any sale of the property. It is is one of the largest claims ever brought by a Dutch government body against a company.

COA confirmed to the paper it has started legal proceedings against LCHD and its directors over “a dispute about the execution of the assignment by LCHD and the termination of rental agreements”, but declined to comment further while the case is before the courts.

LCHD acted as COA’s exclusive intermediary for hotel accommodation from spring 2022, when the arrival of refugees from Ukraine left the agency scrambling for beds.

Over two and a half years, COA paid the company more than €500 million to book hotel rooms nationwide. FD reported earlier that Derksen paid himself more than €40 million in dividends over the period.

Derksen has been a suspect in a criminal investigation since 2023, alongside his former business partner Bob van der Valk, a member of the hotel family.

Prosecutors and the fiscal investigation service FIOD are looking into the two men’s cooperation and the money flows between them; both are suspected of, among other things, private-sector corruption.

Derksen has denied any wrongdoing, saying his prices were transparent and everyone involved knew LCHD was a commercial party making a “logical minimum margin”. LCHD has lodged a counter-claim against COA for what it calls unjustified breaches of contract.

The agency spent €2.5 billion on emergency accommodation in hotels and on cruise ships in 2024, against €1 billion on regular reception.