Former footballer Romeo Castelen in court: “It was casino profit”
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12 Nov 2024 •
Reading time: 2 minutes Romeo Castelen, the former Dutch international, is facing a difficult challenge. The former footballer is accused of laundering €2.2 million. This week, the case really got underway with the first hearing in court.
The story began when he was arrested at Schiphol in 2019 with a large pile of cash: €139,000, to be precise. That was more than a year after he had stopped playing football, his last club was VVV Venlo. But the investigators are mainly focused on his time at the Chinese club Zhejiang Yiteng.
Suspicious contracts and money flows
According to the Public Prosecution Service, Castelen, together with a football scout, is said to have drawn up fake contracts for work that never actually took place. Those contracts were then used to launder large sums of money. The public prosecutor wants to find out where all that money came from and whether it is indeed clean.
“It was all honestly earned”
Castelen sees it differently. He says that the money did not come from suspicious sources, but from large profits in casinos. His lawyer, Evelien de Witte, explains that Castelen could often be found in Dutch and German casinos and sometimes walked away with large amounts of money. De Witte insisted that the staff of those casinos be called as witnesses.
“He was known as a big player who occasionally won large amounts. The staff in Scheveningen and Utrecht can confirm that.”
Doubts in the courtroom
The public prosecutor remained sceptical. She said straight up:
“Normally the house wins, that’s how it works in a casino. Most people go home with less, and certainly not with such amounts.”
But Castelen’s defense is persistent. They also want employees of Zhejiang Yiteng to be heard to prove that Castelen really worked as a scout.
What now?
The case will have a sequel. With the question marks surrounding the origin of the money and the witnesses who can still be called, it will be exciting to see how this ends. Castelen insists that there is no fraud and that he simply had a good dose of luck at the gaming tables.
It happens more often that footballers get into trouble because of gambling. For example, Samuel Eto’o received a hefty fine for promoting an illegal casino.