Willem Endstra

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Willem Alexander Arnold Peter Minne Endstra (January 12, 1953 – May 17, 2004) was a Dutch real estate trader.

Endstra started his own business Convoy Vastgoed BV in 1987 after having worked in his parents real estate business and studying law at the Vrije Universiteit.

In 1992, Endstra was a suspect in using his business for money laundering the profits of a criminal gang dealing in XTC. The case was closed though when Endstra made a deal with public prosecutors in Amsterdam worth about €1 million to prevent criminal prosecution.

Dutch criminal John Mieremet proclaimed in 2002 that together with Sam Klepper he was brought into contact with Endstra via Heineken-kidnapper Willem Holleeder. Mieremet also believed that Endstra was behind a recent murder attack on him. Endstra denied these allegations, but when a picture of Endstra was published in the magazine Quote later that year, Endstra was seen sitting with Holleeder on a bench in front of Endstra's offices. That same magazine professed that Endstra's net worth that year to be around €350 million.

When another person involved in the kidnapping of Heineken, Cor van Hout, was murdered in 2003, informants told the Amsterdam police that Endstra would be next.

[edit] May 2004

On May 14, 2004, Dutch police announced they would not look further into money laundering allegations against Endstra. The next day, Endstra would appear in the television program Business Class of Harry Mens (a program to be broadcasted on television the next day), saying that after all these years of investigating without finding anything concrete, they should leave him alone now. On the day of the broadcast, May 16, Endstra was shot down near his offices in Amsterdam. He succumbed to these wounds later that day in a hospital. It is still unknown who are the perpetrators behind his killing.

[edit] Aftermath

Not soon thereafter, it would become public that Endstra tried to plot a murder against Holleeder, with the use of some Hells Angels. Also it became apparent that Endstra has likely been extorted by Holleeder since 2002. Holleeder himself would be arrested in 2006 for this act among others.

Dutch newspaper Het Parool published in March 2006 that Endstra has on more than one occasion talked to police about the criminal milieu of Amsterdam. Altogether the inverview worked out to more than 200 pages of notes. In it, Endstra told the police that Holleeder was behind the murder of 25 people, under which Cor van Hout, Sam Klepper, Jan Femer, George Plieger, Magdi Barsoum, Jules Jie en Gijs van Dam.