Money laundering case against Piet W. (54) started, justice suspects him of more
The trial against Siegfried "Piet" W. started today in the Rotterdam court.

Panorama Editorial
Feb 18, 2025 | 2:53 PM

Officially, W. is on trial for laundering millions of euros, but according to Crimesite, the justice department sees him as a major player in the international drug trade. He could also be linked to liquidations. Despite years of investigation, the Public Prosecution Service has no hard evidence for this.

On the radar for fifteen years
W. has been high on the justice system's priority list for over fifteen years. Where serious criminals like Ridouan Taghi and "Bolle Jos" Leijdekkers were convicted on the basis of clear evidence, this appears to be much more difficult with W. So far, he has only been convicted once: in 2014 he was sentenced to 7 years in prison for smuggling 1,100 kilos of cocaine.

Justice has since attempted to link him to larger drug shipments, including shipments of tens of thousands of kilos of cocaine to Hong Kong and Cape Verde, among other places. But because the evidence was insufficient, this did not lead to a conviction.

Money laundering with luxury possessions
The current case officially revolves around money laundering. The Public Prosecution Service states that W. spent millions of euros without a demonstrable legal source of income. According to the judiciary, he financed a Surinamese political party, owned several luxury cars – including a Rolls-Royce – and had millions in gold in his possession.

W. himself denies that there is any criminal money involved. His defense states that he earned his fortune with gold trading and concessions for logging and gold mining. The convicted Surinamese vice-president Ronnie Brunswijk even claims that the almost six million euros in gold that the justice department attributes to W., was his. However, the justice department questions this explanation.

Involved in liquidations?
W.'s name would also surface in investigations into various liquidations. Anonymous tips and wiretapped conversations point to his involvement in a cocaine racket in 2019. Shortly afterwards, two men were liquidated: former professional footballer Kelvin Maynard in Amsterdam and Genciël 'Genna' Feller in Curaçao.

However, again there is no hard evidence that W. was involved in these murders.

https://panorama.nl/artikel/636315/...-begonnen-justitie-verdenkt-hem-van-meer