podcastRian van Rijbroek is known as ‘cybercharlatan’, but in the meantime has one of the richest IT entrepreneurs in her power: Gerard Sanderink. Who is Van Rijbroek and what drives her? In the podcast Under the spell of Rian searches Tubantia-journalist Angelique Kunst answers those questions.
First of all, what is this case about? It sounds complicated.
,,Do you have a minute? There is a gentleman in Twente, Gerard Sanderink (73). He is a farmer’s son, but has built an empire with his own hands. The best-known companies are the ICT company Centric and the construction company Strukton. That man is not married and has no children. He has been known all his life as a decent, modest man, who leads a frugal life. He had a relationship with Brigitte van Egten, but that relationship came to an end four years ago. He turned out to have a new relationship with Rian van Rijbroek. She is known as ‘cybercharlatan’.
Listen below to the first two episodes of ‘Under the spell of Rian’. The text then continues.
After a series of DDos attacks on banks and government agencies, she was invited by news hour and went there as an expert. There she sold such an unbelievable amount of nonsense, that news hour apologized afterwards: Van Rijbroek turned out not to be an expert at all. Six months after that broadcast, she got into a relationship with Sanderink, who is incredibly gullible. She on the other hand is a very crafty lady, I have done a lot of research on that. She’s good at destroying entrepreneurs, several of which I’ve spoken to. They have stood on the edge of the abyss because of her. And the same pattern is now repeating itself at Sanderink.
The only difference is that Sanderink’s companies are very large and important to the Dutch government. Centric supplies ICT systems for governments, and as a result manages privacy-sensitive data of almost all Dutch people. That makes the case relevant to journalism. Sanderink clearly appears to be heavily influenced by Van Rijbroek. He has fired top executives, continues to conduct lawsuits against his ex and does not comply with the verdicts. Rian, on the other hand, never shows up. She does not want to talk to the press, but in the meantime she manages his e-mail accounts and e-mails under his name. My book was published in April, in which I denounce this story. But the focus was mainly on him.”
I googled her and immediately my alarm bells started ringing. Then I knew it was wrong
And then you thought: this deserves a sequel?
“Yeah, I thought I wasn’t done yet. She tries to hide, it is difficult to contact her. And also for the stories I make, I always agree with her. But she does everything behind the scenes. So the challenge was: can we sketch who Rian is in a podcast? Who exactly is she and what drives her?”
How did you actually come across this fascinating case?
“Four years ago there was a lawsuit between Sanderink and his ex, Brigitte van Egten. I work for Tubantia and Sanderink is a regional entrepreneur, I knew him from that. Those two never broke up and suddenly there was a lawsuit. He accused her of fraud, theft and sex with Africans. That was already very different. I was present at the trial at the time. The fight seemed to be in the relational sphere at first, but Rian van Rijbroek’s name already fell as ‘the new girlfriend of’. I googled her and immediately my alarm bells started ringing. Then I knew it was wrong.”
Click or tap on a chapter in the image below to read more about Rian van Rijbroek. The text then continues.
Did you run into any issues while making the podcast?
“What made it difficult is that no one dares to talk about her. In my book I have allowed sources to speak anonymously, but that is not possible in a podcast. People are afraid that their voice will be recognized. Fortunately, I managed to make a nice reconstruction together with podcast maker Renée van Heteren. For example, we found an old classmate of Van Rijbroek, who tells us how she was at school. We have (cyber) experts look at her behavior and we even spoke to someone from the AIVD. Van Rijbroek claimed that she had worked for the secret service; that person can bring that story down very nicely. And in addition, a psychologist has painted a profile of her. With that interpretation and my knowledge, we were able to establish her well.”
What is your target? Do you hope to get through to Sanderink?
,,No, I have no illusions: shaking Sanderink will not work. I’ve been in touch so many times, but he doesn’t want to hear about it, even though she’s been unmasked a long time ago. What I do want to achieve with the podcast is to wake up people in the Netherlands. I want them to see that something very serious is going on; the security of privacy-sensitive data is at risk now that Rian van Rijbroek exerts influence over his companies. For example, if he had been a small business owner, I wouldn’t have been so concerned about this. But this case has enormous social importance. That is why it is so important to share this story.”
Under the spell of Rian is a podcast by Tubantia and the AD. Listen from today to the first two episodes via this site, or subscribe via Spotify or iTunes.
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