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The Dutch operation of the
Pathé cinema group was ripped off by internet con men to the tune of over €19m,
court documents published on Friday show.
The con cost both the chief executive
and financial director of the Dutch operation their jobs, and it is unclear if
any of the money has been recovered.
The court documents, which cover the
unfair dismissal case brought by sacked finance chief Edwin Slutter, show in
detail how the thieves went about scamming Pathé Nederland earlier this year.
The first email arrived on March 8, and was apparently sent by the chief
executive of the French cinema group to the Dutch chief Dertje Meijer.
The
message asked if KPMG had contacted Meijer that morning. After discussing the
issue with financial director Edwin Slutter, Meijer replied to the email: ‘We
did not receive anything or a call from him. If you want me to contact him, do
you have contact details?’
The respondent said the company was involved in a takeover
in Dubai and needed her to make a confidential payment of €826,521. The money
would be repaid on the 26th of the same month.
Confidential
‘The transaction
must remain strictly confidential. No one else must be made aware of it for now
in order to give us an advantage over our competitors,’ the email said. ‘I and
I alone will notify the affected parties in due time.’
After more to-ing and
fro-ing, Meijer sent the correspondence on to Slutter with the comment ‘strange
don’t you think?’
On March 9 she received a new mail, confirming the takeover
and sending an invoice for the money, which was the first 10% of the
acquisition price. The money was to be paid into the bank account operated by
Towering Stars General Trading LLC in Dubai.
On March 13, a second payment of
€2,479,563 was made to the same account, followed by a third and fourth
payments. By March 27, Pathé Nederland had paid over a total of €19,244,304.
Questions
On March 28, Meijer received a final email from the fake company
boss, pledging to repay the cash. But that same day questions then began coming
in from Pathé headquarters in Paris.
It was immediately clear that Meijer and
Slutter had been victims of fraud. Both Meijer and Slutter were suspended.
Their sacking was made public at the end of the month with Pathé ‘s owners
stating they no longer had any confidence in them.
Meijer, who used to run the
Amsterdam port authority, had been in the job for less than a year. Slutter,
who had years of experience as a KPMG accountant, decided to fight his sacking
in court, hence the detailed examination of the fraud in legal documents.
Outside investigators brought in by Pathé said they had no evidence that both
Meijer and Slutter were involved in the fraud or that they had any knowledge of
it.
‘Pathe had been the target of a professional group of con men, who had used
refined communication techniques to win the trust of several Pathé employees,’
the report is quoted as saying in the court documents.
Sophisticated
The court
decided that Slutter had been lured in by the con men in a sophisticated trap
and that he should not have been sacked in the spot, even though he ignored
several red flags.
Nevertheless, there is no question he can return to the
company, the court ruled.
The court went on to state that the employment
contract between Slutter and Pathé should be formally dissolved on December 1,
but that the former finance chief should be paid his monthly salary of over
€13,500 from March until then.
DutchNews.nl has asked Pathé ‘s head office in
Paris to comment on the case. Neither Meijer or Slutter were named in the court
documents but both Dutch and French media have identified them as such.
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