Willem Holleeder

Willem Holleeder
Cor van Hout and Holleeder (right) in the Palace of Justice in Amsterdam
Born	Willem Frederik Holleeder (1958-05-29) 29 May 1958 (age 58) Amsterdam, Netherlands
Criminal charge	1983: Heineken kidnapping 2006: Extortion, assault
Criminal penalty	1983: 11 years imprisonment 2007: 9 years imprisonment
Criminal status	In custody awaiting trial

Willem Frederik Holleeder (born 29 May 1958) is a Dutch criminal. Holleeder is nicknamed The Nose because of the size of his nose.

In 1983, Holleeder was sentenced to eleven years imprisonment for his involvement in the kidnapping of Heineken president Freddy Heineken, for €16 million (approximately $19.5 million) ransom. Then, in 2007 Holleeder was sentenced to nine years in prison for several counts of extortion, including the extortion of Willem Endstra, who was murdered in 2004 after falling-out with Holleeder. He served his sentence in Nieuw Vosseveld and was released on 27 January 2012.

Born in 1958 in Amsterdam, Holleeder was the son of an employee at the Heineken breweries who lost his job because of alcoholism. As a teenager, he, along with his classmate Cor van Hout were part of a gang that worked for landlords in evicting squatters, and may have been involved in several robberies. Cor van Hout was later to become his brother-in-law by marrying his sister Sonja.

In 1983, their relatively unknown gang abducted the Heineken heir Freddy Heineken (who had purchased back the family ownership of the brewery), along with his chauffeur. Ultimately, their demand for 35 guilders (approximately €16 million, or $19.5 million) was met by the family, although the police were against it. After Freddy Heineken's release, the kidnappers—Cor van Hout, Willem Holleeder, Jan Boelaard, Frans Meijer, and Martin Erkamps—were all eventually traced and served prison sentences. During this period, Holleeder met many other gangsters, including John Mieremet, who was later accused of ordering the murder of Holleeder's brother-in-law and co-criminal Cor van Hout.

After serving the Heineken sentence, Holleeder emerged as a high-profile criminal leader. Several million of the Heineken ransom was never traced, and may have been part of his initial kitty with which he and Cor van Hout set up an extortion empire; there are said to be up to 24 people in his crime ring.

Initially, he was in a business relationship with real estate businessman Willem Endstra, possibly involving money laundering. After Cor van Hout was killed in 2003, Holleeder fell out with Endstra. Endstra secretly testified to the police about Holleeder, but was shot dead near his office in 2004. It is suspected that Holleeder, along with his partner-in-crime Dino S., ordered the murder of both Willem Endstra and John Mieremet, who was shot in Thailand on 2 November 2005. Holleeder's name keeps turning up in this connection although three suspects in the Endstra murder, Ali N. and C. Özgür of Alkmaar and Cleon D. from Almere have been released. According to Endstra, Holleeder was involved in 25 murders, including that of Cor van Hout.