Ex-Racing Team Nederland owner/ driver Frits van Eerd has been sentenced to two years in prison after a Dutch court today found him guilty of money laundering, bribery, and forgery.
Van Eerd, also a personal sponsor at the time of a number of Dutch drivers, was arrested in September 2022 in an investigation covering the origins and outcomes of sponsorship payments from the JUMBO supermarket chain, of which van Eerd was CEO at the time.
The prosecution claimed there were hundreds of thousands of Euros of unexplained cash found in his possession, with the centre of the investigation surrounding his co-defendant, Theo E, who allegedly received significant payments for goods and services from money intended to fund a motocross team.
Whilst numerous business associates, friends and family of van Eerd claimed that many of the unexplained payments were in fact payments for cars and car parts, that evidence was rejected by the prosecution as implausible.
Frits van Eerd competed in ELMS, FIA WEC and IMSA in LMP2 from 2017-2022, scoring one LMP2 win (Fuji in 2019) and four LMP2 Pro-Am victories en route to the WEC LMP2 Pro-Am title in 2021.
van Eerd’s legal representatives have made it clear that an appeal is almost certain.
