Author

Eric Smit

articles
5
2022

The undisputed appointment of Putin’s lawyer to Dutch Supreme Court

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Eric Smit & Jan-Hein Strop

Eric Smit & Jan-Hein Strop

Six days before President Putin began his war in Ukraine, the Dutch cabinet appointed a Kremlin lawyer to the counsellor of the Supreme Court, the highest judicial body. Alexander van der Voort Maarschalk, who joined the Supreme Court last week, worked at the large law firm Houthoff, which counselled the Russian Federation during some controversial proceedings. The Tax department, where he was a partner, performed ‘extremely poorly’ in complying with legal regulations for the prevention of money laundering.

ABN Amro gambled with taxpayer money under the leadership of Gerrit Zalm

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Eric Smit

Eric Smit

In October 2008, the government saved ABN Amro from collapse with taxpayer money totalling 30 billion. The bank was nationalised, and former Finance Minister Gerrit Zalm promised to turn it into a respectable, conservative bank. Eighteen months later, under his leadership, the bank set up two aggressive financing structures with Deutsche Bank and Goldman Sachs. ‘These were risky and irresponsible practices under Gerrit Zalm’s leadership’.

2020

In the crosshairs of tax and investigation services: Dutch CumEx trader Frank Vogel

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Eric Smit & Siem Eikelenboom

Eric Smit & Siem Eikelenboom

The tax authorities of several countries are chasing Frank Vogel, the Dutch king of the CumEx trade. Claims ranging in the millions of euros are awaiting him in Belgium and Denmark. In Germany, he is a suspect in at least one criminal investigation. A reconstruction of the tumultuous career of a notorious dividend stripper.

2019

Already in 2005, the FIOD detected worldwide billion-dollar fraud with dividend tax

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Eric Smit & Siem Eikelenboom

Eric Smit & Siem Eikelenboom

At the end of 2005, the FIOD - the Dutch Fiscal Information and Investigation Service - was well aware that a Fortis division was engaged in dividend stripping. This type of trade with dividend has seriously disadvantaged tax authorities in a number of countries; the damage amounts to billions of euros. However, the FIOD did not share this information with sister services abroad, which therefore remained ignorant of the fact that their systems were susceptible to this type of fraud as well. It was not until 2013 that the CumEx scandal broke out in Germany.

2018

As a state bank, ABN Amro was involved in international dividend tax fraud

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Eric Smit & Siem Eikelenboom

Eric Smit & Siem Eikelenboom

Few banks committed the CumEx fraud as fanatically as state bank ABN Amro did. Since 2006, the Ministry of Finance had detailed knowledge of this. However, even after the Ministry became the owner of ABN Amro in 2008, the bank knowingly remained involved in transactions that seriously affected tax authorities. The Ministry did not share the knowledge of this fraud with the Minister and did not interfere with the CumEx trading.