planb4you-logoPlanB4You launched in 2014 and saw affiliates deposit €40 EUR investments on the promise of an eventual €50 EUR ROI (see PlanB4You review).

With new affiliate funds being used to pay off existing investors, it didn’t take long for authorities in the Netherlands to start investigating.

December saw that investigation result in the shutting down of the scheme by the Netherlands’ Fiscal Information and Investigation Service (FIOD).

In addition to shutting PlanB4You down, FIOD also seized multiple assets belonging to the scheme’s owner, Johny Schabregs.

Despite his assets being frozen and FIOD on the lookout for him, Schabregs remained at large. In response to FIOD seizing his assets, Schabregs defiantly announced one last-ditch attempt to fleece investors, promising them “2 for 1” investment positions in his scam.

Over the past two months FIOD have continued to monitor Schabregs, finally tracking him down and making an arrest on Friday February 20th.

johny-schabregs-owner-planb4youSchabregs (right) has been remanded to custody for two weeks, with Prosecutors in the Netherlands claiming that ‘thousands of people in the Netherlands, Germany, Belgium, Slovenia and Italy‘ have invested in PlanB4You.

Schabregs himself had previously boasted about having some 20,000 investors join and invest in his scam.

Now he faces charges of fraud, operating a pyramid scheme and laundering the proceeds.

Prosecutors allege that Schabregs spent funds invested in PlanB4You on ‘personal expenses, including the purchase of expensive cars.

I’m guessing now that they’ve got him, Schabregs can expect to spend a considerable amount of time in prison.

No word yet on how or when those who lost funds in the scheme might go about lodging a claim. At the time of publication Dutch authorities had recovered some €2.5 million EUR, along with the seizure of seven cars.

How much was invested in PlanB4You is yet to be publicly disclosed.

 

Update 5th May 2016 – On Wednesday May 4th, 2016, a court in Amsterdam sentenced Johny Schabregs to three years in prison.