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What does the FIOD do?

Publication date 07-03-2025, 8:49 | Last update 09-05-2025, 11:29

We are the investigation service of the Netherlands Ministry of Finance. We investigate financial fraud and tax fraud. And we combat them.

Criminals laundering money in sunny resorts. Managers enriching themselves at the expense of our pensions or taxpayers' money. Companies conning their employees or suppliers through bankruptcy fraud. These are a few examples of fraud. It occurs in many organisations and in all walks of life.

When there are signs of fraud, we start investigations to gather evidence and bring suspects to justice. Fraud has many faces and occurs on both a large and small scale.

Combating fraud is important not only financially, but also socially. We want to send a clear signal that we are tackling fraud. Because fraud always creates victims.

Identifying large-scale fraud and organised crime

Within the FIOD, there is a team - the Criminal Intelligence Team (TCI) - that specialises in detecting and combating large-scale fraud and organised crime. For example, laundering criminal assets, bankruptcy fraud and VAT carousel fraud.

The team uses informers. These are people who can and want to share information about crime but do not want to act as witnesses. TCI staff ensure that their personal data is kept secret,  so the informer's identity is never revealed. Even the judge does not know who provided the information.

With trend watching, we track new developments and indicators in society. This is how we prepare for the future. We look at which social developments lead to large cash flows. And whether this could involve fraud.

With trend watching we:

  • develop new policies
  • formulate new themes for the FIOD
  • develop future scenarios
  • advise our partners, such as other investigation services and regulators.

Combating money laundering together

Together with the Anti Money Laundering Centre (AMLC) the FIOD combats and prevents money laundering.

The centre is a meeting place for organisations involved in anti-money laundering: the police, the Public Prosecution Service, the Financial Intelligence Unit and the FIOD. Other special investigation services also participate, such as the Netherlands Food and Consumer Product Safety Authority and the Human Environment and Transport Inspectorate.