Investigative journalist with a mission
Welcome to my new website! Thanks for visiting it. I am Paula Bouwer, entrepreneur and investigative journalist. My life is not a boring story. As a fourteen year old girl, as being the oldest of six, I came to the Netherlands from Canada. With the help of crossword puzzles, the news and my school friends, I learned the Dutch language. Five years later, with a VWO diploma in my pocket, I ended up at the Ministry of Internal Affairs via employment agencies. In the evenings, I studied economics. With my company “Study Book Exchange”, I won an award for the best thesis at Utrecht University of Applied Sciences. I bought two properties and then started Amersfoort's Educational Bookstore and Pinocchio Children's Bookstore. Severe sepsis threw a spanner in the works. I had to stop doing business. I lost my two bookstores and my retail buildings because the health problems kept being severe. A divorce followed. For years, I had to rest a lot and even needed help at home to take care of my children. I'm thankful that the doctors saved me and I'm lucky I didn't have to leave my children behind, not having a mother. Through trial and error, I got back on my feet and eventually I managed to even start a new business in my beloved city center of Amersfoort for the second time. In addition to my working at a bank, I started building a new future as a family. Just like we dreamed of.
Een stukje geschiedenis
In 2007 deed de kans zich voor om in de binnenstand van Amersfoort een horecaonderneming te starten, naast mijn werk bij een bank. Dit markeerde de start van een bijna 20-jaar durende overheidshetze tegen mij. Met als kers op de taart een notering op de fraudelijsten. In 2021 bleek ik erkende gedupeerde te zijn van de 'toeslagenaffaire'. Ik heb meegedaan aan een aangifte tegen de betrokken bewindslieden. Hier ontmoette ik ander ouders en ondernemers.
Driven by Truth, Humanity, and Justice
With my daughters, we often fantasized about what it would be like to start a fun hospitality business. At some point, the time was right - my youngest son was six years old at the time - we decided to go for it. I found a beautiful building at a lovely spot at the foot of the Saint George Church in Amersfoort. All our spare moments we spent in remodelling the building. With my savings and the revenue from selling my house, we turn it into a little sweet palace. After almost a year of hard work, I had noticed an article in the City Reports. There will be a urilift at the Groenmarkt. Just one day after the objection period has expired, the message was placed. Nothing official was possible to stop it. Our permits are put on hold. We can't open our restaurant and bed & breakfast. The Municipality of Amersfoort thinks the agreements we made with them are not so important. To them they are not, to us it is a crucial request. They have a better plan for my terrace. A urilift is placed - being a public 3-man toilet where men pee in public. Everyone can see them. They are relentless. The necessary permits are not issued, the original applications are simply amended to justify the arrival of the urilift, false documents are submitted and used in lawsuits. Only in 2016 the Council of State puts an end to this. In the meanwhile, the tax authorities also played a remarkable role. Going to the left or to the right, it is clear. We have to be knocked out. And so I did eventually. After 15 years of struggling, I stopped doing what I liked the most. I changed my path. Starting following a new one. Starting to learn how to use investigative journalism in affairs like mine. In April 2025, I have writen an article for the Groene Amsterdammer (together with Marco de Vries)
At the moment, I'm working on a second article, again with Marco. About the consequences for the children in the families affected by the “benefits affair”. Relocations followed, businesses collapsed, the children's future was determined by a great deal of stress, broken relationships and a lack of money. It was difficult to follow a course. High student debts occurred. The relationship between parent and child became tense. Many children blame their parents (often their mothers) for not taking good care of them. They are often right, because it was an impossible task. Either work hard or get sick. Bailiffs and Seizures. Losing possessions. No longer having a home. Flights abroad. That was (and is) daily life.
My work
From in-depth research, (co) writing articles, keeping an up-to-date Linkedin page with more than 5000 followers, to sharing knowledge through lectures and workshops: this is what I fill my days with. I was born in Canada and I experienced how nice it is to live with people from all over the world. How different it is here! Even the unthinkable has happened in the Netherlands: the systematic discrimination of citizens, children and entrepreneurs by the entire government!!
Research & Journalism
I conduct independent journalistic research into structural abuses, power relations and administrative errors. In addition, I combine file research with interviews and field work. My strength lies in translating complex information into clear, human stories that touch and set something in motion.
Lectures & Workshops
In the form of a presentation, I would like to talk about my experience with the Municipality of Amersfoort as a (starting) entrepreneur, as well as about the abuses at the tax authorities. I can also do this with involved parents, entrepreneurs or people who have helped me in recent years. I can also talk about how I get the bottom of the stick with investigative journalism. The discovery of the document “The short slap in the face of the systemic fraudster” and the “Wiki Guide to Treatment for Special Customers and Tax Service” make it clear that the SME department has used the same practices as the Benefits Department. Cooperation was intended to get companies out of business, pull the trigger, accelerate bankruptcy. How did I achieve this as an investigative journalist? I show how the abuses occurred, which mechanisms play a role and what the impact is on people's lives. Always based on my own work and experiences, with room for dialogue and questions. Together with my partner Joost Allein Richir, who worked as a lawyer at the tax authorities for almost 40 years, we can also provide your meeting with high-profile information. We are currently working together on a book about the 'Dutch Tax Scandal'.
Knowledge Sharing & Advice
In April 2025, together with Marco de Vries, a highly experienced investigative journalist, I wrote an article about the consequences for entrepreneurs who were faced with a biased approach by the tax authorities. Together, we are writing a series of articles for the Green Amsterdammer. I am currently working on an article about the consequences for the children of affected parents and entrepreneurs. Over the past few years, I've supported countless journalists with information and advice. If you have an idea to collaborate on an article, a podcast, a broadcast, a study, please contact me. I have built a database with information about, for example, the FSV lists, the CAF team, the functioning of the RAM system, the removals, the role of algorithms, the selections made in the systems. I am also open to new information, especially from employees with relevant information that offers more insights, such as bailiffs, court employees, judges, lawyers, officials.
Also a victim of government actions
The unjustified recoveries and settlements by the tax authorities, the attack on me as an entrepreneur, have a profound impact on me as a person, as a partner, colleague, girlfriend, daughter, sister and mother. Since 2007 - almost 20 years now - I have been dealing with a government that apparently believes I am a fraud. With my hospitality company Queens in Amersfoort, I have also had to deal with major opposition, with partisan justice - the government is always right - and with very long-term harassment and harassment. The role of municipalities in combating fraud is still severely understudied. With other parents and entrepreneurs, we get more clarity about this secret collaboration. A kind of alliance against fraud.
According to the European Charter, citizens have the right to freedom to do business. As an important driver of the economy, being an entrepreneur is something you do with your heart and soul. With love and passion, you create something that has a market for, what is needed, what you enjoy. What you would like to run a step faster for. My parents raised our family through entrepreneurship. “Work hard and don't give up,” my mother used to say. My mom's homemade baking skills inspired me: Banana cream pie and pecan pie. Lemon curd and potato salad: we also wanted to show this to the Netherlands. My mom gave me the tea cups and her recipes. “Dreams are deceit”. Since 2007, I've known for sure that something is wrong. That there is cooperation to bring me down, including with the judiciary. That, as an entrepreneur, you are 'a piece of shit'. In 2022, I quit Queens. With my Foundation for the Recovery of Unprecedented Injustice, I hope I can contribute to identifying and understanding the seriousness of the consequences of fraud suspicions.
Voordat ik onderzoeksjournalist werd, runde ik meerdere bedrijven. Drie vestigingen van Queens (restaurant, city hotel, uitjes in Amersfoort). Ik leerde daar hoe beleid, vergunningen en handhaving uitpakten.
In 2014 heb ik voor het eerst onderzoeksjournalistiek gestudeerd. Tijdens corona heb ik tijdelijk een Mondkapjesatelier gehad. In dezelfde periode ben ik begonnen met interviewen van andere gedupeerde ouders en ondernemers. In 2022 heb ik mijn zaak verkocht en heb ik een jaar gestudeerd bij Open Eyes in Amsterdam. Ik besloot me uiteindelijk volledig te wijden aan onderzoek naar het ontstaan van de toeslagenaffaire en de hersteloperatie. Zo heb ik e kenmerken van gedupeerden onderzocht, het aantal overleden ouders en kinderen onderzocht, de gevolgen voor kinderen in kaart gebracht, de rol van gemeenten onder de loep genomen, de gevolgen voor de ondernemers als afstudeeronderwerp genomen. Ik leerde over data-analyse, Woo-verzoeken maken, rechtbankzittingen bijwonen, interviewtechnieken, bronnenonderzoek.
Victim
families
Victim
kids
Placed out of home
kids
Deceased parents
and kids
Entrepreneurs
touched
Former partners
getroffen
The numbers show the impact
The benefits affair is not an abstract file. It's about people, families, businesses. Lives that came to a standstill. Relationships that broke down. Ending up in social isolation. Health issues. School and study problems. Debts, debts and more debts. Bailiffs, seizures. Stress. No rest. Panic.
Click to read the article Marco de Vries and I have written for De Groene Amsterdammer about the people who lost their businesses.
Latest articles & insights
Follow me on Linkedin, read my articles here.
DIGITAL COVER-UP: AT LEAST 64 MILLION DOCUMENTS CONTAINING CRUCIAL INFORMATION FOUND AFTER SEVEN YEARS
State Secretaries Sandra Palmen-Schlangen and Eelco Eerenberg have announced that an investigation is being launched into the digital safe containing at least 64 million documents discovered “in July 2025”. The vault (this is a storage environment closed to employees: the Q drives) contains information that was made untraceable seven years earlier. Not available provided with WOO requests and inquiries. Not available to parents and entrepreneurs who received reviews. The House of Representatives of the States General was also unaware.
55 children get new opportunities after the allowance affair
55 children get new opportunities after the benefits affair. Oxford Academy and the Municipality of The Hague are working together on an initiative that grew into a way to offer hope and perspective for families.
First Meeting of Duped Entrepreneurs & Supplements/FSV/SMES (GOT) on March 25, 2026
On Wednesday, March 25, 2026, the First GOT Meeting will take place in Hooglanderveen, near Dorpshuis de Dissel. There will be a presentation about the discovery of 'The short slap in the face of the systemic fraudster' where it became clear that the SME department of the tax authorities deliberately and purposefully “phenomena” that they made fraud suspects “out of business”, “pulled the trigger”, “pulled the criminal law” through the CAF team.
Driving school owner Nora flees from the tax authorities to Germany with her children in the back seat
Driving school owner Nora Ghazoun flees to Germany with her children after major child care allowance recoveries left her homeless. For years, she worked to repay the amount of more than 60,000 euros. Wrongly. The interest group Duped Entrepreneurs Supplements/FSV/SMEs from the Stichting Herstel Onbekend Inrecht Foundation presented a petition to the House of Representatives on 17 March 2026, asking for attention: “Entrepreneurs were also wrongly seen as fraudsters”.