Sywert van Lienden says there has been no financial disadvantage for a few dozen customers who ordered rapid tests and mouth caps from the Aid Troops foundation. He thus responds to the ANP news agency on an article by Follow the Money.
The research platform reported this morning that Van Lienden and his partners with their Relief Goods Alliance bv earned not only from the sale of mouth caps to the government, but also from the sale of mouth caps and rapid tests to healthcare institutions and business customers.
These customers were convinced that they were going to work with the Auxiliary Alliance Foundation, a non-profit foundation. Specialized lawyers tell the journalistic research platform that there may have been fraud. According to FTM, Van Lienden and his partners tricked customers into thinking they were dealing with the charity while he and his associates were making money from the deal. Van Lienden did not want to comment against FTM.
‘Data from FTM are not correct’
The data in the FTM piece is incorrect, he now tells the news agency. “The mentioned turnovers, order numbers and information about customer relationships are not correct. There are customers who have been explicitly informed. And there are also others that we are still investigating. We are still reconstructing that.”
Van Lienden emphasizes that customers have never been financially disadvantaged by their orders. “The customers at RGA received equal prices and volume discounts. So it doesn’t matter to the customer where they bought – so there is no disadvantage. And of course everyone got their stuff and all the service you can count on was provided.”
‘Possibly ambiguity due to two names’
However, confusion could have arisen because two organization names are used. “A dual structure of a non-profit foundation and a large corporate BV next to the foundation, so that we can work for it unpaid, can create ambiguities,” acknowledges Van Lienden. “We have been tightening and improving that lately, and checking whether there is indeed ambiguity and ambiguity.”
Van Lienden states that he and his partners did not earn any money from the Auxiliary Forces Foundation. They received a monthly salary through RGA. “To be clear: all orders that were carried out via the Auxiliary Troops webshop were carried out via the foundation. This concerns tens of thousands of orders, about 99.7 percent. That may give a sense of the proportions.”
‘Never received any complaints’
According to Van Lienden, customer complaints have never been received before. He says that Auxiliary Forces will call the three disgruntled customers mentioned in the FTM piece on Monday to ask what the situation is. “How they came to us and how the contact has been. It just has to be done right. If we receive a complaint from a customer, we solve it.”
Van Lienden and his business partners came discredited in May this year because they made a million-dollar profit on a controversial face mask deal with the government, while they claimed to be making nothing from it.
–
