The Public Prosecution Service (OM) has filed an appeal in the asset forfeiture case against the convicted and sought Jos Leijdekkers. The OM had claimed an amount of over 221 million euros in so-called illegally obtained benefits, the amount that the convicted has earned through criminal activities.
On July 14, the Rotterdam court set in its ruling an amount of nearly 127 million euros and imposed a payment obligation of nearly 97 million euros. The OM disagrees with this ruling. The OM believes that the court miscalculated how much benefit Leijdekkers has had. The period that the court uses is, according to the OM, incomplete and too limited. The OM argues that, unlike the court, the period immediately after the commission of the criminal offenses should also be included. The criminal money can only be spent after it has been earned.
The OM also disagrees with the courts decision to deduct the purchase costs of seized cocaine from the amount he must repay to the State. It is, according to the OM, not explainable to society that someone invests their illegally earned money in cocaine, and that those investment costs are then seen as business risks.
The OM also points out that an apartment in Dubai and seized watches in the name of the suspects mother were not considered by the court. According to the OM, there are sufficient indications in chat conversations that she received them from Leijdekkers.
Therefore, the OM requests the Court of Appeal to determine the illegally obtained benefits and the payment obligation at an amount of at least 221,675,808 euros.