The story around the Austrian luxury chalets of the Dutch real estate investor Dirk-Jan Bakker is exciting. Bakker was the main investor and partner of cybercrime mastermind Uwe Lenhoff, who died in prison in 2020, between 2015 and 2019. The two met in 2014 while on vacation in Austria, where Bakker recently made a controversial real estate transaction with Russians. Bakker today denies having had a business partnership with Lenhoff. Here’s the story.
The Russian-Austrian Real Estate Transaction
As reported by FinTelegram, Russian-born Olga Tanatarova, who today holds a “Golden Passport” from Cyprus, purchased four plots of land, including partially completed luxury chalets, in the posh Austrian resort of Lech from an Austrian in 2019.
After the Russian invasion of Ukraine in February 2022 and entering into force of Western sanctions, Tanatarova sold the chalets to Dutch real estate investor Dirk-Jan “DJ” Bakker for €12.5 million. That is said to have been well below the true value, says the original Austrian owner, who is taking action against Bakker. The whole transaction raises some questions. But back to Bakker.
Download the purchase agreement here.
The Distorted Narrative
In an interview published in December 2022 on local news platform VOL.at, Bakker claims he was not a business partner of Lenhoff but merely a shareholder or investor in his listed VELTYCO GROUP PLC, just as Elon Musk has shareholders in Tesla.
Mr. L. (Uwe Lenhoff) was not my business partner. Like him, I was merely a shareholder in the same stock corporation. I myself was damaged by the machinations of Mr. Uwe L. by several million euros. Again, Mr. L. was not my business partner. If they had Twitter shares, which have now been taken over by Mr. Elon Musk, you would not call yourself a “business partner” of Mr. Musk either.
Real estate investor Dirk-Jan Bakker (interview with VOL.at)
The Dutch online magazine Follow The Money (FTM) published a comprehensive portrait of the partnership between Bakker and Lenhoff in 2020 that is much closer to reality.
VELTYCO was the holding and front-end for the group’s numerous scam activities with fraudulent broker scams like Option888, fraudulent online lotteries like Lotto Palace, and many other illicit activities. Law enforcement analysts also found that dirty money was laundered through VELTYCO. Bakker was one of the controlling shareholders and Lenhoff’s partner until the end, along with Lenhoff.
Bakker confirmed to FinTelegram 2019 that sometime in 2015 or 2016, he introduced Lenhoff to Rudolf Booker, the disgraced founder and CEO of Dutch payment processor Payvision. Lenhoff subsequently acted as a distributor for Payvision and referred numerous other scammers.
Preliminary Conclusion
We do not know the real estate transaction details between Russian Cypriot Olga Tanatarova and Bakker. A few weeks ago, in early June 2023, Bakker resold one of the chalets and the owning company, SteinLodge GmbH, to two Dutch companies, KaRo B.V. and AGIH B.V.
However, we know that Bakker distorted the reality about his partnership with Uwe Lenhoff beyond recognition in his interview in VOL.at and thus misled the readers.
Well, this portrayal by Bakker is not in line with the reality. According to the information available (and confirmed by Bakker), Bakker and Lenhoff met in 2014 during a vacation in Austria near Lech. Both were involved in online gaming and found common interests at the time.
In 2015, Bakker, through his Dutch Diman B.V., granted Lenhoff a loan of €1 million loan for purchasing a villa in Turkey. Bakker himself signed the loan agreement.
Uwe Lenhoff and DJ Bakker also jointly established VELTYCO GROUP PLC (formerly SHELTYCO), listed on the London Stock Exchange as of 2016. Bakker entered the project with €1.8 million in return for a 40% stake in the company. The comparison Bakker makes with a normal Tesla shareholder is obviously false and misleading.
During their partnership between 2015 and Lenhoff’s arrest in early 2019, Lenhoff could also access Bakker’s yacht and jet for private purposes. Bakker also confirmed this to FinTelegram. This is also rather unusual for “normal” Tesla shareholders. Elon Musk would also confirm this, we think.
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If you have any information about VELTYCO, Diman, Dirk-Jan Bakker, or the Austrian real estate transaction, please let us know through our whistleblower system, Whistle42.
