I wonder about this often. How does someone fool everybody around him? And especially, what kind of person tries to get rich at the expense of his company, friends, business contacts, etc. How does someone acquire this “looking out for Number One” attitude? You are welcome to respond if you can suggest an answer.

Here’s an example.

Boer Shipyard or SWB has about 40 regular employees. This means that indirectly, about 100 people – the famous 2.5 factor – are dependent on the company. This ranges from the Chinese restaurant to the steel supplier and the temp agency. If an average of 3 people are dependent on each breadwinner, we’re talking about 300 people.  

Everyone knows that personnel costs are a considerable recurring monthly expense. And if a number of these employees are fiddling the company, it’s hard to get rid of them except at a very high cost. And those high costs will push a company into the red.

Leo Boer, during his life, soon saw that it wouldn’t do to be “wedded” to your personnel. For some people, you need a microscope to spot their company loyalty. And when people won’t do their job, the boss can fire them, but at a very high cost. The fired employee immediately demands job placement services and expenses that currently range from 20k to 50k for an employee, and from 150k to 200k for a senior employee.

This is one of the reasons that Leo Boer decided on 2 October 2018, during an extraordinary meeting of the BV Scheeps- en Jachtwerf L.J. Boer Sliedrecht BV, to appoint Mr Hans as a director of the SWB Shipyard company. Leo Boer suspected that he might need to fire Hans for lack of leadership capacities one day. He didn’t want that to be done personally—that would cost money—but by dissolving the contract with the partnership in which Hans operated. 

As the documents of the extraordinary meeting state:

“The chairman (Leo Boer) proposes that Hans be appointed as director of the partnership in the position of independent authorised operator with the title of general director, and brings the proposal to a vote. The meeting approves the proposal unanimously, establishing a legal decision. 

Hans accepted the appointment and will add his signature to the minutes in acknowledgement thereof”.

The crux

What does this have to do with fiddling the books?

I’ll explain. Hans had been receiving a salary as an adjunct financial director since 1 January 2007. He received a salary of €4,985 (which Hans subsequently raised to €10,000 – more on this later), a phone and a company car. According to Article 5.3 of the employment contract, he had to return the car immediately if he became unable to do his work for any reason—which he refused to do. According to Article 11, he also had a confidentiality obligation which included the provision that no correspondence or documents were to leave the workplace. He also flouted that requirement. Article 12 contains a competition clause. Hans may not establish or operate any shipyard or related business in the Netherlands for two years after the end of his contract. 

If Hans signed an employment contract as a natural person, he might be able to claim unfair dismissal (“it’s all lies”) and demand compensation of a sum as high as €200,000. He’d say his name had been besmirched and executive positions don’t grow on trees. 

But if Hans acted on behalf of his company, the case would be different. Then the contract with the company would be cancelled and he as an independent contractor would not receive a penny.

The resolution of the board as noted above indicates that the latter is the case. Hans denies this, and says he is paid as an employee. He never actually resigned as an employee in March 2018.

And that is called a fraud or fiddle.

Looking out for Number One

What kind of person defrauds a company? Let’s be clear: in July 2021, SWB Shipyard was on the verge of bankruptcy. With only 1k in the company’s bank account, a 200k fraud scheme was like stepping off a cliff. And Hans knew that. 

But as Hans had olive trees delivered to his new house at the expense of SWB Shipyard, he had not the slightest concern about whether his actions brought SWB Shipyard to ruin. If workers lose their jobs, it means nothing to a person like that. Hence the heading, “Looking Out for Number One.”  

This reminds me of the time when I wrote the book Steve Brown, Drug Baron in Blue Jeans. It was a number one bestseller on the charts for a few weeks. To write that book, I spent six months getting to know the Amsterdam underworld. And everything I saw, learned, and heard fits perfectly with the swindle at SWB Shipyard and SWB Shipping. A swindle that, in my view, took on an unseemly and abusive character. And you can read all about it on this website.