On Monday 22 October 2018, lawyer Barbara van Straaten filed a criminal complaint with the Public Prosecutor's Office in the Netherlands on behalf of Avaaz. The criminal complaint is directed against a number of Dutch companies that were allegedly involved in the laundering of approximately 1.5 million dollars originating from a large-scale fraud in Kazachstan. The proceeds of this fraud were laundered through a global network of shell companies and fake transactions. Amongst other things, investments were made in real estate projects in the US and Switzerland. Part of these funds were chanelled through Dutch companies. The Dutch TV-program Zembla reported extensively about this case.
Avaaz has started a petition calling on the Public Prosecutor's Office to further investigate this case. The petition can be signed online here.
For more news about this case, see (in Dutch):
- E. Cukier, 'Aangifte tegen Nederlandse bedrijven wegens Kazachstaanse miljardenfraude', NRC Handelsblad, 26 October 2018
- 'Aangifte tegen Nederlandse bedrijven voor miljardenfraude Kazachstan', Nu.nl, 26 October 2018