General Members' Meeting (CANCELLED)

Important: BumaStemra detects external fraud with registered music, The General Members’ Meeting cancelled

BumaStemra has decided to cancel its General Members’ Meeting (GMM) scheduled for Wednesday, May 14 (tomorrow). The GMM was set to take place at 9:00 a.m. in TivoliVredenburg, Utrecht.

The reason is that BumaStemra has identified a limited number of external fraud cases. During an internal audit at the end of April, it was discovered that false documents had been used to become a member of BumaStemra and receive remuneration for the use of music. Among other things, forged non-Dutch identity documents were used.

To put a stop to this fraud, an internal investigation was launched immediately, and all accounts where irregularities were found were promptly blocked. Initial findings indicate that the suspected fraudulent activity involves rightholder accounts and 890 registered musical works. The investigation is still ongoing.

Based on current information, BumaStemra has paid out a total of €107,000 for these works to the now-blocked accounts in the period covering 2024 and 2025.

BumaStemra is doing everything in its power to recover the unduly paid funds and will compensate any rightholders who have been disadvantaged. BumaStemra will file a police report and commission an external investigation.

Today, BumaStemra’s auditor informed us that, in light of this information, the audit report issued at the end of April on the financial statements is no longer valid, pending further checks and investigations. This means the audit report may not be used at this time. As a result, it is not meaningful to proceed with the General Members’ Meeting, which was set to cover these financial statements.

BumaStemra will schedule a new date for the General Members’ Meeting as soon as possible.

Kind regards,
Marcel Gelauff, CEO a.i.
Marleen Kloppers, CFO