‘Rian van Rijbroek becomes director of companies of Centric boss Sanderink’

Gerard Sanderink’s companies Centric and Strukton are said to be partly owned by ‘cybercharlatan’ Rian van Rijbroek. She will become a director in all his companies after his death, says Tubantia. She has also become a certificate holder in the foundation that manages the shares.

The share transfer would have taken place in October 2020, Tubantia writes. This came to light this week in a disciplinary complaint from Brigitte van Egten, Sanderink’s ex-girlfriend. He was also employed by Centric. Tubantia found out that civil-law notaries from the notary’s office BarentsKrans helped Van Rijbroek to become a depositary receipt holder for the foundation that manages the shares of Sanderink’s corporate empire. That notary’s office is part of Van Egten’s disciplinary complaint.

They amended the articles of association of the foundation, which stipulates that two new board members will take office in the event of Sanderink’s death or resignation. Those two new board members are Van Rijbroek and Centric’s supervisory director Aike Schoots.

The influence of Rian van Rijbroek, who is Sanderink’s girlfriend, is controversial. Van Rijbroek was in the news in 2018 because she was invited as a cyber expert in Nieuwsuur. Her story was debunked by well-known security experts. A book she wrote with former Secretary of State Willem Vermeend was later withdrawn from the market because of plagiarism.

As a friend of Sanderink, Van Rijbroek was able to gain a lot of influence in the CEO’s business empire. This includes many IT companies. Van Rijbroek became treasurer of the Technology & Cybersecurity Gerard Sanderink foundation in 2019. This foundation would manage his assets in the event of his death. She also took on various advisory roles within Sanderink’s companies. De Volkskrant wrote in 2019 that Karim Henkens, CEO of Centric, would have been fired because he spoke out against the growing role of Van Rijbroek. Three other Centric top executives also left or were fired. Sanderink resigned from his positions as CEO at Centric and Oranjewoud in early 2021.

Mail traffic in the hands of Tubantia between Sanderink and his lawyers shows that a plan was devised to sell shares of Sanderink Investments to Schoots and Van Rijbroek and to have them certified, in the run-up to Van Egten’s lawsuit. Subsequently, the amendment to the articles of association of the foundation was implemented. Tubantia concludes that everything indicates that Schoots and Van Rijbroek are the new directors of the Stichting Administratiekantoor Sanderink Investments, appointed by Sanderink, although this is not stated literally in the amendment of the statute. According to the rules of the board, Schoots must resign on December 31 this year because of his age. This would give Van Rijbroek the only absolute say over Sanderink’s empire, the newspaper writes. The most important companies that fall under this category are the aforementioned Centric, which carries out large ICT projects for the government, among other things, and construction company Strukton, which also carries out large projects for the government.