EXCLUSIVE-Dutch prosecutors open probe into alleged fuel quality testing fraud

The Transport Inspectorate (ILT), an agency within the Dutch Infrastructure Ministry, said last week that it suspected a "major international testing laboratory of large-scale falsification of analysis results" in a post on its website. The ILT said it had raided two of the laboratory's offices, in cooperation with police and prosecutors, and seized evidence.

Prosecutors in the Netherlands have opened a criminal investigation into alleged testing fraud involving Dutch subsidiaries of U.S. petrochemicals analysis firm AmSpec LLC, a spokesperson for the prosecutor's office confirmed to Reuters.

AmSpec denied any wrongdoing and called the allegations against it "unfounded and irresponsible". The Transport Inspectorate (ILT), an agency within the Dutch Infrastructure Ministry, said last week that it suspected a "major international testing laboratory of large-scale falsification of analysis results" in a post on its website.

The ILT said it had raided two of the laboratory's offices, in cooperation with police and prosecutors, and seized evidence. The agency posted photos of the raids on its website, and Reuters later identified the offices as belonging AmSpec, a major player in petrochemicals testing.

AmSpec confirmed that two of its offices in the Netherlands had been visited by Dutch law enforcement officials but said it did not know why it had been targeted nor what wrongdoing may be suspected. "The allegations made by a local Dutch agency against two of our Netherlands facilities are completely unfounded and irresponsible," AmSpec told Reuters in a statement, adding that it was cooperating with the investigation.

The ILT said on its website there were "signs that the company has not acted with integrity and (that it) manipulates or adjusts its analyses with the aim of financial gain for companies involved". AmSpec said its quality assurance is regularly audited both internally and externally and is of the "highest standards" in the industry.

"Integrity is the underlying foundation of everything we do," it said. The spokesperson for the Dutch national public prosecutor's office on Monday described the case as a complex criminal probe. They did not say what evidence had been seized nor whether other companies were currently being investigated.

They said the investigation is in an early phase and asked that further questions be posed in writing. The government agency responsible for investigating financial crimes, the FIOD, also confirmed its involvement in the case.

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