A former project-leader of “Licht-festival Glow”, stole money from the foundation which organizes this well-known Eindhoven event. At least, according to documents of one of the district courts, the Rechtbank Oost Brabant.
The man worked as project-leader for the Glow Foundation or Stichting Glow. He was in charge of organizing this popular event since 2011.
It turns out a collaboration with a similar festival in Brescia in Italy, was carried out using his own company. He pretended to be working for the Glow organisation.
The first year of the collaboration the Glow Foundation lost € 200.000. Though in a statement, the foundation mentions, the sum lost through the financial construction was far lower.
After deducting costs, the loss in profit would amount to several tens of thousands of Euro. How much money the project-leader stole during a second year, has yet to be determined.
No criminal accusation
The foundation has not yet filed criminal accusations. On behalf of the Glow Foundation, its lawyer Sven Johansen stated, it first wants to await the results of the civil lawsuit.
Although the Court ruled in this case, an appeal seems highly likely. Such an appeal may take a further one and a half years.
The Court ruled, the former employee must hand over a large number of documents. This may imply this fraud case may actually be much larger and more complicated.
Johansen acknowledges, an appeal will cause the case to drag on. It may take another eighteen months, before the documents will be handed over.
Collaboration with Brescia
The organization of the Brescia Light Festival in Italy, was looking for a collaboration with Glow in 2016. The project leader travelled from Eindhoven to Italy at the expense of Glow.
Officially, the man only made appointments about an Eindhoven project at the Italian CidneOn Festival Internazionale delle Luci. This concerned a project which Stichting Glow itself developed in collaboration with Eindhoven schoolchildren. This project was used and as its developer, Glow received a fee.
However, with hindsight, it seems the project-leader then pretended to develop and organise the complete event. He regularly mentioned the name of the Eindhoven foundation, but used his own company to bill the Italian festival.
Court documents also showed, the man accepted bribes from Dutch artiesten collectief or artists’ group Afterlight. This group, which participates in GLOW since 2011, wanted commissions from the Glow Foundation. In case they obtained commissions, 10% of their fees paid by Glow, had to be handed over to the project leader.
Local paper Eindhovens Dagblad writes, a discussion about credit card expenses resulted in this court case. A dispute about the expenses caused the project-leader to be dismissed. When his mailbox was checked after his dismissal, dubious agreements and arrangements about which Stichting Glow remained in the dark, came to light.
Source: Studio 040
Translator: Kate
