Rabobank was an important support for the face mask deal of Sywert van Lienden and his companions. The bank had arranged a loan of 115 million euros and a team of bankers that had to supervise the deal with the Ministry of Health, Welfare and Sport. That’s in the book Sywert’s millionsfrom Follow the Moneyjournalists Jan-Hein Strop and Stefan Vermeulen.
According to the authors, the support of the bank was important for the ministry to work with the Auxiliary Alliance Foundation. There was a major shortage of face masks in the spring of 2020 and the foundation said it could quickly arrange millions. Van Lienden said that ‘not to do’. In the end it turned out that he and his two companions made millions of profit through a commercial BV.
In exchange for the credit, the Rabobank bankers requested an “unconditional” purchase guarantee from VWS, according to internal documents in the hands of FTM. That was no problem for the ministry. Former Minister Van Rijn for Medical Care is said to have said to Van Lienden: “If someone comes to us with 40 million mouth caps, we say: ‘Fine, we will [die] guaranteed to finish.'”
Rabobank won’t say anything
In the end, Rabobank’s money was not used; VWS decided to pay the 100 million euros itself. Barbara Baarsma would have mediated in the deal. She was director of Rabobank Amsterdam in the spring of 2020 and has known Van Lienden for years. For example, in the past they were regularly guests on the TV program The world goes on.
Rabobank says in a response to the NOS that “due to the relationship of trust with customers, no data is shared with the media”. The bank also states that not all financing applications actually lead to the granting of a loan. “There can be various reasons for this, such as doubt in an application.” The bank says about Baarsma’s role that it was “only involved as a banker at the start of the charity initiative”.
Unforeseen mail
Internal emails show that Rabobank bankers asked questions about the relatively high ‘unforeseen’ item that Van Lienden and his partners had included in the cost calculation. This amounted to 20 percent and with that the price of the mouth caps was increased. One of the bankers asked the partners via Baarsma what would happen to that money if there were no unforeseen costs.
“Things can go wrong in the process. That is why the government also accepts a risk premium. ‘Profit’ is therefore not an issue for the government,” responded one of the partners, Bernd Damme. He would have assured Rabobank that in the event of a profit, the money would be given an ideal destination.
The fact that Van Lienden, Damme and the third companion, Camille van Gestel, kept silent about the fact that profit would end up in their own BV, is salient according to Follow the Money. There is an investigation by the Public Prosecution Service into deception by the three of their business partners. The reason for the investigation by the Public Prosecution Service was a report from employment agency Randstad.
Van Lienden was arrested at the end of last month by the tax investigation service FIOD. The three have since been released, but the investigation is still ongoing.
Baarsma tells Follow the Money that as a “private person she has not been involved and cannot make any announcements about any involvement by Rabobank”.
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