Hendrik Nienhuis, the former CEO of the shrimp processor now known as Heiploeg International, has been fined €13 million for orchestrating the North Sea shrimp price-fixing cartel that pushed the company into insolvency.
Read also
On Monday, a court found the 83-year-old Nienhuis responsible for the illegal price agreements made by Heiploeg, Klaas Puul Beheer and some smaller buyers with fishermen between 2000 and 2009, RTV Nord reported. Klaas Puul blew the whistle on the cartel, avoiding a fine. Heiploeg was fined €27m, going into administration and then being snapped up by Parlevliet and van der Plas (P&P) in a controversial pre-pack deal.
“The liability procedure against Nienhuis is the final piece in the bankruptcy of Heiploeg,” said Pieter Lettinga of Dorhout Advocaten, the law firm acting as the Heiploeg bankruptcy trustee.
Nienhuis is appealing against the verdict, his lawyer Peter Hoekstra told RTV Nord. Ultimately, the court will determine what Nienhuis has to pay. Undercurrent News could not immediately reach Nienhuis for comment.
Heiploeg owed over €100m to creditors before the pre-pack deal with P&P, according to the report from RTV Nord.
In an attempt to recover money for creditors, Lettinga and colleague Gerard Breuker have gone after Nienhuis and eight Heiploeg directors and commissioners who they held responsible for the cartel and subsequent bankruptcy. The trustees reached a settlement of €3m with the other eight, RTV Nord reports.
Read also
Lettinga and Breuker see Nienhuis as the driver of the cartel, so did not want to settle. The €13m amount is around half the total fine for Heiploeg, as Nienhuis was Heiploeg's chairman for roughly half of the cartel period, until 2004.
The trustees already seized assets worth several million euros from Nienhuis last year.
Pre-pack case also not resolved
An appeal over the bankruptcy and pre-pack sale of Heiploeg to P&P is also ongoing.
Around 90 employees ended up out of work and those who returned did so on less favorable terms, RTV Nord reports.
The unions objected to the bankruptcy process, which took place without their knowledge. After the Supreme Court approved the flash bankruptcy, this judgment will now be reviewed by the European Court of Justice.
Read also
Telson administration
It's not been a good year for Nienhuis. Earlier this year, Telson, a venture focused on machine-peeled North Sea shrimp he was involved in with his son, Onno, went under.
On March 11, Undercurrent reported Telson had gone into administration amid tough times in North Sea shrimp. Telson was 50% owned by Bencis Capital Partners under its Shore shrimp group.
In May, Dutch seafood giant Cornelis Vrolijk acquired the former Telson plant from administration for its Kegge Garnalenhandel shrimp subsidiary. Then, on June 16, Cornelis Vrolijk nabbed an undisclosed stake in Garnalenpelcentrum (GPC) Kant, a company making and operating machines for peeling North Sea shrimp.
GPC Kant rented space in the former Telson plant. The company had been contract peeling shrimp for Telson until March, when the latter firm went under.
September 29, 2020 at 01:57PM
https://ift.tt/2SeUHy5
Court fines former Heiploeg boss €13m over shrimp price fixing - Undercurrent News
https://ift.tt/3eNRKhS
shrimp
No comments:
Post a Comment