Have you invested in a project abroad and lost your money? Teak plantations in Brazil, orange plantations in South Africa, vanilla plantations in Madagascar, holiday homes in Spain or Turkey, gold mines in Ghana, diamond mines in Congo, or another exotic investment project? Then you are probably a victim of foreign investment fraud — a problem that affects thousands of Dutch investors and has been ongoing for decades.
The recognizable pattern
The story is always the same, regardless of the type of investment or the country of destination. A Dutch company approaches you — often by phone and unsolicited — with a “unique investment opportunity” abroad. The salesperson is professional and convincing. You receive a glossy brochure with impressive photos of the project and return promises that seem too good to be true.
You invest. The money is transferred to the Dutch company and then disappears abroad — to a corporate entity, a foundation, or a bank account over which you have absolutely no control. Initially, you might still receive messages and updates. But gradually, the payouts are delayed, the answers to your questions become more evasive, and the company becomes harder to reach. Eventually, the communication stops entirely, and you are left empty-handed.
Why are foreign investments so vulnerable to fraud?
There are several reasons why investments abroad are particularly vulnerable to fraud. As an investor, you cannot visit, check, or verify the project. The AFM (Dutch Authority for the Financial Markets) has no jurisdiction over foreign projects and cannot enforce regulations. The money leaves the Netherlands and is therefore harder to trace. The corporate structure has been deliberately made complex with entities in multiple countries. And the legal system in the country of the project differs from the Dutch system, making legal action more difficult.
Fraudsters know this and deliberately take advantage of it. By locating the project in a distant foreign country, they create a structure that is maximally opaque and minimally verifiable.
What BFRG can do for you
Foundation BFRG is not limited to the Netherlands. We are deployable internationally and have the expertise and the network to act effectively in cases of foreign investment fraud as well. Specifically, we can:
Conduct forensic investigations into international financial flows — where did your money go?
Track down responsible individuals, even if they reside abroad.
Have international asset seizures executed via our network of foreign lawyers.
Conduct a mass claim collectively on behalf of all victims.
When do we start a new mass claim?
We assess the feasibility of every registered case. The conditions are: there must be enough victims (mass claims are not intended for individual cases), there must be legal grounds to hold the responsible parties accountable, and there must be recovery options — there is no point in litigating if there is nothing to recover.
If these conditions are met, we will start a new mass claim. The more victims come forward, the faster we can take on a case and the stronger the legal position will be.
