On Thursday, ‘Big’ Willem van B, the former head of the Hells Angels in Amsterdam, was sentenced to 240 hours of community service for money laundering. The 67-year-old Elmerder is said to have laundered more than 1.7 million euros between 2001 and 2014. According to prosecutors, the man kept this criminal money hidden in accounts in Switzerland for twenty years.
Van B. was identified as a suspect in October 2013, after prosecutors began an investigation following a report from the tax authorities. The man participated in a voluntary disclosure scheme to the tax authorities, in which he voluntarily gave up assets stored in Switzerland. He still paid tax on this, but the tax authorities suspected that this money had a criminal origin. Van B. could not prove the origin of those funds.
The money made by milking pigeons
Big Willem was head of the Hells Angels in Amsterdam for 35 years until he was evacuated in 2004. The former boss then moved to Almere. Since 2013 he participated in the No Surrender Motorcycle Club until this club was banned in 2019.
Van B says Himself he earned €1.7 million from the 1970s through the “trading of pigeon dairy products”. It was also about the ‘over-profit’ from The Last Place in Amsterdam. “I don’t hate paying taxes, but I do when it’s too much.” Plus, he got black when celebrities, like Sylvester Stallone and Bruce Willis, needed protection when walking through the red-light district. “I escorted Sammy Davis Jr myself,” the suspect said.
‘unbelievable’
The Public Prosecution found these statements to be implausible. According to the officer, his work as a “red light district guard” refers to the red light security staff at Hell’s Angels, “so there is no legal income either.” The man will also get a large income from the pigeon trade. Inquiries about this at the Luxury Pigeon Breeders Association came to nothing. The officer usually asks for forty months in prison, but now this case is very old. That’s why he stuck to the community service order.
Van B’s criminal record is negligible. According to his lawyers, a significant part of this amount can be explained by the capital growth in the years 1978 to 1999. Already at the end of 1999 there was such a large amount in the accounts that this fact has largely become out of date. Evidence has not been provided on the suspicion that this capital was “for the Hells Angels pension,” according to the attorneys.
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