Citation millionaire suspected of mixing mercury in animal feed | interior

These allegations appear in the summons against the suspect Peter B., who must answer in court in the coming weeks. “This is the largest investigation to date by the Dutch Food and Consumer Product Safety Authority’s IOD investigation department,” a spokesperson for the public prosecutor’s office said.

According to justice, the transformation and recycling of fats in which the suspect specialized was a stinky business in several respects. One complaint concerns a batch of feed materials that contained 100 times more mercury than legally permitted. Another batch was contaminated with more than five hundred times the maximum level of metalaxyl; a fungicide.

Instead of complying with the obligation to declare such contaminations, B. falsified the papers and returned the contaminated goods to the animal feed chain between 2014 and 2016, according to the public ministry. If cows, pigs or chickens have eaten these foods, the substances may also have reached human consumption.

If public health was really at stake, the public prosecutor does not want to say it before the public prosecutor has delivered his indictment. Justice accuses the suspect of having taken irresponsible risks because of the dangerous transformation of animal fats. In addition to B., his former companies Kuminda BV, Noba BV, Rotie BV, Simadan Holding BV and BDA BV are also listed in the summons.

The recycling entrepreneur, with biodiesel initiatives and investments across the border, was according to business magazine Quote in 2020 still good for a capital of 200 million euros. According to the first hearing, which took place on Thursday, B. is no longer the owner of the companies named and his place of residence is on Bonaire.

Justice does not consider B. as a successful entrepreneur, but as the founder and leader of a criminal organization. The club committed environmental offenses and forgeries to avoid being caught, according to OM. Lawyer Marleen Velthuis says her client ‘doesn’t ask any questions during investigation [van media] answers”. The judge will probably not rule before the summer.

This isn’t the first time a fat processing company has been discredited. In 1999, the dioxin crisis erupted in Belgium after contaminated oil ended up in the raw material for animal feed from a fat foundry. Two thousand farms were then closed, and seven million chickens and 60,000 pigs were culled as a precaution.