Dutch prosecutors suspect Sywert van Lienden and his associates of funnelling money through a secretly created company and earning nearly €30m from supplying face masks. Library picture shows face masks in Luxembourg.  Photo: Matic Zorman / Maison Moderne

Dutch prosecutors suspect Sywert van Lienden and his associates of funnelling money through a secretly created company and earning nearly €30m from supplying face masks. Library picture shows face masks in Luxembourg.  Photo: Matic Zorman / Maison Moderne

A money laundering investigation in the Netherlands has resulted in Luxembourg assets belonging to Dutch entrepreneur Sywert van Lienden being frozen.

Van Lienden and his associates Camille van Gestel and Bernd Damme founded a company called Stichting Hulptroepen Alliantie (SHA) which supplied masks and medical equipment during the pandemic. Although they claim their operation was not-for-profit, Dutch prosecutors suspect the three men of funnelling money through another secretly created company. In doing so they are believed to have earned nearly €30m and are now accused of fraud, embezzlement and money laundering

Assets belonging to van Lienden--including cars and real estate--have now been seized in the Netherlands, Luxembourg and Switzerland. "These were already known to the Public Prosecution Service," said Han Jahae, the Dutch businessman’s legal advisor according to the Dutch press agency ANP.

Already in April, the Dutch bank accounts of the three entrepreneurs who founded SHA were frozen resulting in €11.5m seized altogether. Back then, a ruling by the court in Amsterdam stated that there was not a clear distinction between SHA and the limited liability company the SHA the three directors had established.