Justice made the first arrests in the upper world last Thursday in the major investigation into real estate fraud surrounding Kerkraden resident Joep J.The "luxury" residential house in a better neighborhood of Brunssum is drearily empty. "My clients basically only have a bed to sleep in," explains attorney Serge Weening. He represents an entrepreneurial couple arrested last Thursday who are suspected of money laundering, among other things. The "vacancy" in their homeis the result of a harsh intervention by the prosecution and the tax authoritiesin the large real estate fraud investigation Landlord surrounding Kerkrade resident Joep J.
They seized real estate and other assets of the Brunssum couple, who run a brokerage and a mortgage cum insurance agency. But apparently also, as it turned out during the raid on their home last Thursday, has green fingers. The investigation services found a hemp nursery(305 plants) there. Weening calls the seizures "extreme" and will contest them. Justice wants to give a clear signal: criminally acquired money is taken away. That signal will also be heard in the upper world, because the Brunssum couple has a dubious honor in the Landlord investigation: they are the first suspects in the upper world to be caught.
These arrests did not come out of the blue. The investigation stems from the South Limburg Clean Hands operation. The aim of this operation by the judiciary, municipalities, tax authorities and investigation services is to prevent the underworld from infiltrating the legal upper world. And vice versa, that 'white collar' criminals assist in laundering criminal money. Real estate trader Joep J. is the first object of investigation. He can never have built up his empire legally, according to the judiciary and the tax authorities. The tax authorities have already imposed additional assessments of around twelve million euros on him. All 134 buildings and parcels of land belonging to the J. family have been seized. Last year it already appeared that justice is investigating whether employees of theRabobank and SNS helped Joep J. in a criminal way. The prosecution is not making any announcement about this now.Money laundering islast difficult to prove. The Brunssum couple allegedly bought a disco property 300,000 euros below the tax value (WOZ) of Joep J.. The duo allegedly paid the Kerkrade man partly in black. Lawyer Weening already gives a taste of his defense: "TheWOZ-value is quite different from the market value. A disco building on that site is not good in the market. Now that the difference in value is the basis for the money laundering suspicion, I think the investigation team has insufficient knowledge of real estate transactions." The prosecution will think entirely differently about that. The judge will soon have the final word.
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