Private investors are taking senior officials from bankrupt technical services company Imtech to court, saying that they are responsible for both misleading them and the loss of millions of euros.

The Financieele Dagblad, which has a copy of the court documents, says that the investors allege 14 senior managers and supervisory board staff were involved in ‘corrupt trades’ and keeping share price sensitive information secret.

The company eventually went bust in 2015, two years after an accounting fraud and other irregularities came to light. In the meantime, the company had raised €1.1bn from its shareholders in June 2013 and October 2014 – money which went up in smoke with the bankruptcy.

The claim has been brought by 10 investors but legal advisor Pieter Lijesen told the FD he expects a further 1,100 to join the claim.

Dutch shareholders lobby group VEB said in 2015 it is holding 15 former managers and supervisory board members responsible for the financial damage suffered by investors.

The VEB is working with the curators to determine the causes of the bankruptcy and will use that as evidence to make claims, the FD said.