Thread by @ArienhOfficial

"Charles Geerts (businessman)"

[Text from Wiki]

"Charles Ludovicus Geerts (born 1943, in Amsterdam) is a Dutch entrepreneur and was at one time one of Amsterdam's largest brothel owners. He is known as Dikke Charles (fat Charles) and Amsterdam's Emperor of Sex."

"Geerts founded a mail-order company in erotic articles. After the sale of this firm in 1993, the money acquired was invested in real estate on the Amsterdam red-Light district."

"Geerts is the founder of Scala agencies and the owner of many windows in the red-light district in Amsterdam."

"In 2001 he successfully sued Het Parool newspaper in the Raad voor de Journalistiek (Journalism Council) after an article by Bart Middelburg on money laundering. In 2004, Zembla broadcast a programme in which he was associated with [CSAM]."

"By order of the Raad voor de Journalistiek, the programme had to rectify this claim. Geerts was friends with drug lord Klaas Bruinsma."

"On Thursday, 30 November 2006, all Geerts licenses were withdrawn by the municipality because, according to the national BIBOB agency, he had close ties with the underworld and would use his company for money laundering."

"Since the ban on brothels was removed from the Penal Code on 1 October 2000, municipalities have issued brothel permits, which gives them the administrative means to control sex establishments."

"On 22 June 2007, it was announced that Geerts was negotiating to sell his brothel buildings to the municipality of Amsterdam."

"At that time he was in conversation with Stadsgoed NV which, with the support of the municipality of Amsterdam, took over the Geerts' property for 25 million euros."

"A preliminary relief judge had previously forbidden the mayor to close Geerts' premises before the objections committee had substantively commented on Geerts' defence."

"On that basis, the municipality of Amsterdam decided to buy out Geerts. In 2008 he sold 17 properties for 25 million EUR of which more than half was paid by the municipality."

"Before the sale, Geerts controlled over 60 windows in the entertainment blocks. Most of the windows were emptied and curtains hung behind the windows. "Project 1012" was put into force to gentrify the red-light district."

"Some feared however that it's a cover for speculation on the very coveted property in the tourist hub."

"In 2009, Charles Geerts filed a criminal complaint for defamation against Amsterdam alderman Lodewijk Asscher because he had called him a "criminal" and "crimogenic" person during an interview with Penthouse magazine."

"In the first instance, the complaint was dismissed by the public prosecutor, after which Geerts' lawyer filed a complaint with the Amsterdam Court of Appeal."

"A second report against Asscher followed in February 2010 because in an interview with De Telegraaf Assher related Geerts with serious crime."

"In a press release, Geerts pointed out that when selling his properties to the municipality of Amsterdam, he had to commit himself not to publicly or privately make offensive remarks to, or about, municipal administrators or officials."

"Although not formally agreed, on the basis of reciprocity, the municipality should also refrain making from insulting comments about Geerts. Geerts (and his lawyer) was of the opinion that an alderman, based on his position alone should not make insulting comments to a citizen."

"In August 2012 it was announced that Geerts would be active in the red-light district again, and in 2014 Geerts bought a building at Overtoom, with plans for the establishment of a hotel."

en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Charles_G…

'Clean up in the Red Light District has evaporated'

[Text by BNR, 2017]

"Brothel owner Charles Geerts, bought out by the municipality of Amsterdam, has used his 25 million euro premium as an investment for new criminal cases."

"This has emerged from research by the Financieele Dagblad and the Investico platform into the 570 coffee shops in the Netherlands."

"Geerts was the largest window operator in the Red Light District until the municipality bought him out in September 2007. Now he appears to have indirect business ties with three weed shops in Amsterdam, two of which are in the red light district."

"The government money for cleaning the Red Light District will return to the same place with a U-turn, says Vasco van der Boon of the Financieele Dagblad. 'But what exactly the municipality agreed with Geerts at that time, the municipality cannot yet tell us.'"

"The construction does not seem conducive to the success of the so-called Project 1012, concludes Van der Boon. 'The clean-up action in the Red Light District has evaporated,' says a senior Amsterdam official in a city newspaper. I think that is a good conclusion."

"It was a major clean-up campaign led by then PvdA alderman Lodewijk Asscher. In a previous story in the FD, criminologists and the Public Prosecution Service already said that in this way there is a risk of an undesirable mixing of the upper and underworld.'"

"It is clear, however, that Geerts was no longer welcome in the red light district as a drug dealer or brothel owner in 'exchange' for those 25 million, says Van der Boon."

"'He lent a large part of his millions from the municipality to buy a coffee shop in Amersfoort and that coffee shop started investing in three Amsterdam coffee shops, two of which are in the Red Light District.'"

"And to make the entanglement even more complex: Geerts has that Amersfoort 'turntable for money flows' from and to the Red Light District as collateral."

"The rent of that coffee shop is pledged to himself, so interest and repayment on his loan are paid, among other things, from the proceeds of the sale of drugs in the Red Light District, says Van der Boon."

"'Clearly that is at odds with at least the severance pay the municipality gave Geerts, but according to his lawyer, it really can be done.'"

"Van der Boon knows of other examples of controversial entrepreneurs the city wants to get rid of, but who simply return as property owners, landlords or financiers via a U-turn."

"In Haarlem, the brothers of a convicted key player
from the IRT-affair
landlords of coffee shops. Similar constructions are also known in other cities in North Brabant and Limburg, among others."
bnr.nl/nieuws/binnenl…