The prosecution service and tax officials in the Netherlands are to establish a real estate intelligence centre to combat real estate fraud. The centre will work with police and local officials to tackle networks involved in illegally skimming off profits from real estate activities.
The prosecution service and tax officials in the Netherlands are to establish a real estate intelligence centre to combat real estate fraud. The centre will work with police and local officials to tackle networks involved in illegally skimming off profits from real estate activities.
A major part of the plan outlined recently by Dutch justice minister Hirsch Ballin and finance minister Wouter Bos is a bid to limit the right of notary publics to rely on client confidentiality and not to incriminate themselves when questioned about suspect transactions. KNB, the organisation for notary publics, has already signalled its members are willing to report criminal activites.
The ministers are to hold discussions with the associations representing brokers and valuers on how best to prevent criminal activity in the real estate sector. One issue is so-called A-B-C transactions in which a property or properties are deliberately sold at a discount rate between conspirators, and then rolled over with one or more re-sales occurring in a day or a short period of time.
Late last year, Philips Real Estate Investment Management, part of the Dutch electronic giant's pension fund, found itself at the centre of a major investigation into corruption and bribery in the Dutch property investment sector. The company itself is not under suspicion, but a current and former employee have been detained in connection with deals involving property worth several hundred million euros. A total of sixteen people were arrested in connection with the investigation in raids on 54 premises in the Netherlands, Switzerland and Belgium. To date nobody has been convicted.
