Nabod used Frederik’s rumours to pressure Leo Boer’s heir, Luna Vermeulen. 

It is 3 February 2021. In a matter of months, on 5 June 2021, on the first anniversary of his father’s death, Nabod will get to find out the size of his bequest. According to law, it is 25% of the financial value of the estate of Leo Boer. And that is difficult to determine because there are many creditors and expenses involved in that property. The creditors include Luna Vermeulen, who is owed money for Het Plaatje and SWB, and 2 million euros from SWB. Expenses include the costs stemming from the neglected maintenance of the shipyard. There are also ‘freeloaders’ like Hans. He is a 50% shareholder in SWB Shipping and a 45% shareholder in SWB, and the question is what these shares are worth. Due to poor to indifferent management (more on that in another episode), SWB Shipyard is just barely in the black. The new sole shareholder since 20 August, Luna Vermeulen, will have to work hard to get the company on a firm financial footing.  

The truth is, it’s not simple to calculate the value of an estate. Especially if, instead of cooperating, parties hold company accounts hostage in the cloud and threaten Luna Vermeulen. And you can’t calculate it at all if Nabod mixes up the concepts of bequest and statutory share. A bequest is determined on the date of decease, in this case the death date of Leo Boer, and a statutory share is due on the death of the widow and heir (Luna Vermeulen). The child of the deceased gets either a bequest or a statutory share, but not both. 

Seizure

Because Nabod was afraid that Luna Vermeulen would deny him his rightful portion of the estate, through his lawyer he levied a prejudgement attachment and third-party attachment on shares and assets on 3 February 2021. In short, he seized all companies and bank accounts belonging to his late father. That was four months before Luna Vermeulen was required to announce the appraisal of the estate of her late husband via civil-law notary. Nabod seemed unable to understand that this action hindered the appraisal. The money in a bank account also has to be used to pay the appraisers. As this was no longer possible because of the attachment, he effectively slammed and locked the door on the appraisal of his late father’s estate. 

I will go into the motivation put forward in the attachment document as I found it in the waste paper basket: 

–  Vermeulen supposedly intends to go back to South Africa.

Comment: “A lie. Vermeulen wants to save SWB Shipyard and SWB Shipping from a possible bankruptcy. She has business interests in the Netherlands, South Africa, and America. Moving back to South Africa is not on her agenda. Alleging that Luna is a ‘flight risk’ is foul play. Moreover, Luna Vermeulen bought out the other shareholder, Hans, and you don’t do that if you want the companies to cease to exist.  

— Vermeulen has allegedly already carried out many acts of disposal regarding the estate of the deceased, including the removal and sale of personal effects in the estate of the deceased. 

Comment: “A lie. Total nonsense. It is inconceivable that a lawyer could write this kind of nonsense without a judge demanding substantive facts. And the other party can’t set this right, because how can you correct a lie if you don’t have anything to do with it? Just imagine: your neighbour claims you have stolen his moped. You didn’t do it. How do you clear yourself of this accusation? It ought to be the other way around: the neighbour should have to prove it, just as the lawyer for Nabod should have to bring evidence of his accusations. And that isn’t the case. And now the talk of the town becomes, “See how mean that Vermeulen bitch is.” In fact, this attachment is a means of committing character assassination on Luna Vermeulen.

– The petitioner repeatedly asked Vermeulen both via her lawyer and via the civil-law notary for a description of personal effects. Vermeulen did not reply. The petitioner is groping in the dark.

Comment: “Once again, not true. Why doesn’t the lawyer for Nabod put these written petitions on the table?”

– The petitioner fears that Luna Vermeulen will abstract part of the estate. 

Comment: “Proof of the absurd: assume that the assertion is “untrue”. Derive some reason from that for certainty that it is “untrue”. The assertion can therefore not be “untrue” and consequently must be “true”. Go on, let’s see you try. 

– 19. The petitioner understood from Hans that an enquiry has been launched against Vermeulen in the Netherlands Enterprise Court, with the aim of getting Vermeulen dismissed or suspended. Vermeulen is alleged to be guilty of mismanagement by abstracting assets from the company. Hans’ lawyer said that Vermeulen was raiding the company. 

Vermeulen also allegedly forced all employees to sign a confidentiality agreement to prevent the irregularities from coming to light. 

Below is the original Dutch text of the attachment order translated above, in case you thought I was making this up. 

Comment: “When I read this, I understand why I love being an investigative journalist: going down the rabbit hole and bringing the truth to light. The inquiry procedure was based on fiction (more on this in coming episodes) and led to suspension of both Luna Vermeulen and Hans. An independent director was supposed to investigate what was going on. And digging into the activities of this person, it appears that I can question the independence of his actions.

I see more and more a conspiracy between Frederik, Nabod, and Hans, assisted by their lawyers. For Frederik and Nabod, the motive was money, and for Hans it was getting companies SWB Shipping and SWB Shipyard, along with the real estate company Boer Vastgoed, for a song.

Then there’s the non-disclosure agreement; see template. CEO Caroline Vermeulen discovered that people in management positions were appropriating confidential company information with impunity and setting up their own little businesses inside SWB Shipyard. An example is Peppi, who suddenly declared himself the owner of the construction drawings of the push barge Nautica 18, forgetting that he had made them as a paid employee. This sort of non-disclosure agreement should have been put in place long ago by Hans when he was the shipyard manager. Very sneaky of Nabod’s lawyer to bring up these NDAs in a compromising light. 

[translation]

[Letterhead of SWB Shipyard]

The Parties, 

Scheepswerf L.J. Boer B.V., having its registered offices at Industrieweg 18, 3361 HJ Sliedrecht NL, Chamber of Commerce no. 23073768, represented by C. Vermeulen, hereafter referred to as ‘Employer’, 

and 

[redacted], residing at [redacted], date of birth _________, hereafter referred to as ‘Employee’; 

1. Ancillary activities
2. For the duration of the employment contract or suspension, the Employee may not conduct any ancillary activities for another employer or client, either directly or indirectly, or do business for his/her own account, except with the prior written permission of the Employer.
3. Confidentiality clause

1. The Employee is obligated to maintain confidentiality regarding all information about the company, business operations, and customers of the Employer which he/she knows or may reasonably assume are confidential.
2. This obligation applies for the duration of the employment contract and/or suspension and remains in force for 2 years after the end of the employment contract or suspension.
3. The Employee is also required, at the end of the employment contract or immediately upon suspension, to hand over all document and other information, copies, USB sticks and durable data carriers received in the context of his/her work. 
4. Intellectual property

1. The Employer holds the domestic and international intellectual property rights resulting from the work of the Employee during the employment contract and/or suspension and for two years after the end of this period.
2. The Employee waives his/her personality rights within the limits of the law as stipulated in Article 25 of the Copyright Act (Auteurswet).
3. The Employee shall lend cooperation in all actions relating to the establishment of the rights described above, even if these actions must take place after the end of the employment contract and/or suspension.
4. The Employee has no right to any monetary compensation with regard to the application of this article.
5. Confirmation of receipt
6. The Employee confirms receipt of a signed version of this agreement.

Duly signed:

[signature] 22/12/2020

C. Vermeulen

(NOA LJ Boer Sliedrecht Beheer B.V.)

– A former employee of SWB Shipyard and good friend of the deceased claimed that Vermeulen was running the companies into the ground.  

Comment: “Welcome to the swindle factory. The petty criminals have formed a cartel.”

– On the basis of the documents from the Chamber of Commerce and a statement under oath by Frederik, the petitioner attempts his own estimate of the estate. 

Comment: “Frederik, the man who swindles and extorts? And this statement is accepted? Elsewhere in the Third-Party Attachment, statements by Frederik are entered as evidence. What a sad situation.

Lest you think I am imagining things, here are two passages copied from the writ of summons:

[translation]

38. The Petitioner assumes the entire amount including interest and costs. It is possible, and in view of the other assets it is plausible, that the Petitioner has a right to more than the aforementioned amount of the estate. Partly in view of the statement by the former co-worker [redacted]—that the estate is many times greater—and the conduct of the executrix, the Petitioner has reason to believe this is the case. However, since the Petitioner has been left in ignorance regarding the extent of the estate, his exact claim is not known.

Exhibit 14 e-mail from [redacted] dated 16 January 2021

All in all, the above is a sad page from the history of Dutch law. Petty criminals can apparently say whatever they want, and lawyers will gladly put it into court documents. When I wrote the book Steve Brown: Drug Baron in Blue Jeans, it was soon clear that the “underworld” makes as avid a use of lawyers as the “regular world”. In view of their conduct and convictions, this “cartel” operates in the grey zone between the two worlds. And it looks like the Dutch judiciary doesn’t have any answer for that. 

Here’s another passage from the Provisional Attachment:

[translation:]

45. In view of the circumstances and statements by Vermeulen, the Petitioner has a justified fear that the entire estate will be wrongfully drained and/or money will be embezzled, before his (yet to be determined) claim can be recovered from the estate. Despite the fact that the claim is not (yet) payable, but will be payable in the short term, and the Petitioner fears that his claim—due to the damaging actions of Vermeulen and the ignorance in which the Petitioner remains due to the actions of Vermeulen—will not be payable, the Petitioner has the right to and interest in conservational measures. The Petitioner fears that Vermeulen is moving portions of the estate to benefit herself and that in view of her South African background, she will depart for South Africa. Then the Petitioner will miss out and will be practically unable to recover his claim from Vermeulen.

Luna Vermeulen contested the seizure of her late husband’s assets. More on that in the next episode.