The website www.zwendelfabriek.com explores the scam that unfolded after the death of Leo Boer on June 5, 2020, at his shipyard in Sliedrecht. There’s a Dutch saying: “When the cat’s away, the mice will play.” And that’s exactly what happened with two key businesses run by father Jan and son Leo Boer: SWB, short for Scheepswerf Boer, and SWB Shipping.

A scam is caused by a scammer—according to Google, a person who aims to deceive others. They operate both within and outside the law and engage in activities such as:

• Fraud and scams involving shares and dividends
• Theft, deceitful damage, unfair trade, and forgery of ship engines and warehouse or business inventory
• Deception and misleading practices through irregular bookkeeping or insurance fraud
• Swindling, tampering, and trickery through falsifying Lloyd’s certificates
• Manipulation, foul play, and deception to deliberately mislead legal authorities
• Tampering, embezzlement, deceitful damage, and falsification of declarations and witness statements

In short, a scammer closely resembles a criminal—but due to legal and bureaucratic protections, they are difficult to convict. A scammer causes chaos in society—in this case, at Scheepswerf Boer.

According to the Dutch Dictionary, zwendel (scam) is:

A dishonest sham trade, deception, and fraud.