Dirk Kuyt and Wesley Sneijder were heard by the police as witnesses in a major investigation into the criminal organization of the ‘godfather’ Piet S. from The Hague, it reports. General Newspaper Saturday. It concerns the Taxus investigation around the criminal. Several (former) professional football players, including former players of the Dutch national team, would have gambled heavily on a gambling site, which, according to justice, may belong to Piet S..
It concerns the gambling site Edobet, which, according to the Public Prosecution Service, was set up by Freddy S., the son of Piet S. In the conversations overheard by the hack of the messaging service Encrochat, the police heard that Sneijder and Kuyt would regularly gamble via Edobet. In Kuyt’s case, it would be substantial amounts. “Dirk Kuyt sometimes plays 25 backs (25,000 euros, ed.) per day,” the police heard in the conversations.
In another conversation it is stated that Sneijder does not pay off gambling debts. That’s why he and his family should be ‘kicked into the hospital’. “We are no longer going to ask for money, just have them kicked into the hospital first. May also be a female, as long as it is one of that family. His mother, aunt, grandmother, I don’t care who.” Sneijder denies in an interrogation that took place in January this year that he played on the site. He would have been approached by people who said that he was in debt, but afterwards nothing turned out to be true.
Kuyt admitted in the interrogations, read by the newspaper, that he played on Edobet after his active career. He played on credit. “I often left it on the site, but sometimes I got paid. For example, I would meet someone at a gas station. I liked doing this cash so I could play anonymously.” According to Kuyt, he did not play to get rich. “I was sometimes paid in cash. I didn’t play for the money, but I enjoyed playing.”
“When I could prove that this was not true, this story was over,” Sneijder now says in a response to the newspaper. Kuyt says that he ‘d rather not be reminded of it’. “The period that I gambled via Edobet is now far behind me.” Professor of criminal law Sven Brinkhoff thinks Kuyt has committed a criminal offense, referring to ‘a most likely illegal site’ and ‘collecting cash winnings at a gas station’. “That tends to qualify as culpable money laundering.”
Read the full article here General Newspaper.