Dutch man who sued the national lottery for fraud sent to prison over fraud

Ferdy Roet, the founder of Lottery Loss Foundation, has been suspended as its director. He's also been sentenced to prison. This is the fallout of his fraudulent embezzlement of money he won following a lawsuit against the Dutch Lottery, the Staatsloterij. Ironically, he had charged the lottery of operating fraudulently.

Roet has stolen millions from claimants from the lawsuit in recent years. He spent the money on real estate, vehicles and more. Roet's resignation was demanded by nearly thirty foundation participants. According to the group of participants, he would funnel millions to any number of companies to benefit himself.

Judges also found Roet guilty of tax fraud when he moved his claim foundation to Guernsey. They also found that he committed forgery in the preparation and payment of several invoices.

Although the verdict was accepted by the Public Prosecution Service, the original penalty requirement was twice that, four years imprisonment.

This ruling is a setback to the Lottery Loss Foundation, which Roet looted. Now, the foundation must seek to recover the millions of Roet's embezzlement in civil court.

Roet claimed that the lottery had been advertising for years with false chances of winning. The chances of participating in the lottery were reduced by allowing unsold tickets to compete for the prize pools.

In 2015, the Supreme Court ruled that Staatsloterij was guilty of deceit. Roet's support grew quickly. 194,000 people joined Lottery Loss Foundation in order to receive compensation from the lottery. They demanded the return of their deposit because they claimed that, if they knew about the lower odds of winning, they wouldn't have taken part in the lottery. Their joint claim amounted to hundreds of millions of euros.

Roet was successful in his litigation, but he couldn't force Staatsloterij into paying damages. After a group of Lottery Loss Participants went to court, Roet was removed from his position as director of the claim foundation for 2017. He tried many things to get back control since then. He used Loterijverlies BV, his eponymous business based in Guernsey, to accomplish this.

Roet was praised by the public prosecutor last month for his perseverance in the conflict between the Staatsloterij and the criminal case. The prosecutor said that Roet had provided "important jurisprudence" in his fight against the Staatsloterij's deception.

Roet was a fraudster in his fight against the lottery, as the prosecutor stated. He used the foundation to create a foreign piggybank for himself.

He was able to do this by obtaining false invoices and incurring excessive costs. These invoices were issued by a British Isle of Man company established by Roet.

In issuing his verdict, the judge stated, "You wanted to pay the least tax possible. This isn't illegal in and of itself. This is exactly what half the Zuidas are doing. This is apparently normal in this country." However, the prosecutor said that this urge led to tax fraud.

Roet was brought to justice when Eva Jinek, a talk show host, confronted him in 2016. The revelation would be published in De Telegraaf that day. This newspaper would publish the story about the multimillion-dollar loan that he received through a trust company in the British Isle of Man to buy a Bergen luxury dune villa.

Roet later admitted live to television that he was responsible for the trust company. The Tax and Customs Administration began an investigation into financial flows related to Lottery Loss immediately after the broadcast.

The fiscal investigation service, FIOD, arrested the founder of the highly-discussed claim organization almost three years ago. He was suspected of tax fraud and embezzlement.

During Roet's arrest, FIOD searched Roet's home and two offices of the Lottery Loss Foundation in Heerhugowaard. The administration, bank accounts and a Rolls-Royce were all seized.

Roet called last month's sentence of four years imprisonment that the Public Prosecution Service had imposed against him "ridiculous." He then gave an emotional speech in which he stated that he believes that the State is trying to influence him as a result of his fight against Staatsloterij.

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