Herman Xennt is the subject of Netflix’s new crime documentary CyberBunker: The Criminal Underworld. Read about his story and get to know about his family, partner, and children in this article below.
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Herman Xennt On Netflix’s CyberBunker: The Criminal Underworld
Herman Xennt is introduced in Netflix’s Cyberbunker: The Criminal Underworld as a “007 James Bond typical villain.” Shortly after, a longer silver-haired man makes an appearance on camera, prepared to respond to inquiries from the true-crime documentary crew from within a German jail in Trier, where he is currently serving a six-year term as of 2023.
Filmmakers Max Rainer and Kilian Lieb’s Cyberbunker delves into the story of how Herman, a charming man with long blonde hair and a black leather coat, and his group of “mysterious Dutchmen” bought a NATO bunker beneath the German vacation destination of Traben-Trarbach in 2013. CyberBunker 2.0, Xennt’s new subterranean residence, quickly attracted global illicit enterprises.
CyberBunker began providing “bulletproof hosting” for websites in 1995 at a different former NATO bunker in Goes, The Netherlands. That means they offered extremely secure hosting for websites containing illegal or sensitive content but at a considerable cost. The New Yorker claimed that the majority of users ran pornographic websites in the late 1990s.
However, the operation moved to Germany’s Traben-Trarbach within a few years, and among the websites hosted by CyberBunker were The Pirate Bay and WikiLeaks, which was created by Julian Assange. According to the Associated Press, police also stated that it was the origin of a botnet attack that took down the routers of around one million users against the German telecom provider Deutsche Telekom in late 2016.
A German cybercrime squad started looking into Herman’s operations in 2015. Authorities found that Xennt’s data processing center was hosting websites on the Dark Web, including illegal marketplaces. Some of these websites sold narcotics, helped people commit credit card fraud, or engaged in other scams. This information was found through intercepted web traffic.
Along the way, Herman was collaborating with Irish drug gang leader George “The Penguin” Mitchell to develop his “money maker,” an encrypted phone network and applications.
In September 2019, a raid by more than 600 German police resulted in the seizure of servers and the arrest of seven people, including Xennt.
Where Is Herman Xennt Today?
Although Xennt Herman was cleared of any involvement in the crimes on the CyberBunker-hosted websites, he was found guilty in December 2021 of organizing a criminal group. Herman received a prison sentence of slightly less than six years. In September 2023, a German court dismissed his appeal, making the decision final.
Ultimately, in December 2021, Xennt was declared a criminal after a German court heard testimony from Xennt’s defense team, former associates, business partners, and prosecution witnesses. The 62-year-old was found guilty of forming a criminal organization with CyberBunker, even though he was cleared of aiding and abetting the crimes on his hosted sites.
As a result, he was sentenced to five and a half years in jail. He did challenge his conviction, but in 2023, a higher court upheld it for good, so he will stay incarcerated until he completes his sentence. According to documents, he is currently being held in a jail in Trier, Germany.
Nevertheless, Xennt maintains his innocence to this day:
“My trial was not fair, and so neither was the judgment,” he said in the documentary series. “Nothing I could have said would have mattered. I was already convicted before I was arrested.” He also indicated he “didn’t even notice” his customers were using his platform for criminal purposes before cryptically adding,
“I have many plans for the future. I know there is no one else who wants to or can do what I want to do. You cannot stop me. I will still achieve my goals. Everything is ready. I just have to go home. I want to, and I will eventually be able to realize my vision for a better world. No one can stop me.”
Herman Xennt Age
In 2023, Herman Xennt is 64 years of age.
Herman Xennt Family
The only family members of Herman Xennt that we know of are his father, his sister, and his brother-in-law.
What Is Herman Xennt Real Name?
The real name of Herman Xennt is Herman-Johan Verwoert-Derksen. However, the New Yorker reported that he preferred to be called by his new surname.
Herman Xennt Partner
Herman Xennt had been with his Dutch Antillean heritage partner Angelique since his 20s. They had two sons named Xyonn and Yennoah: X and Y.
Xennt and Angelique soon separated, and she retained primary custody of the boys. He also has a son who was born in 2019, to a different mother.
Upon purchasing the Traben-Trarbach estate, Xennt extended an invitation to his now-young adult sons to work there. Angelique, their mother, also joined them, albeit she was not employed at CyberBunker. A boyhood friend of the sons who went to the complex claimed that the family was not entirely reunited because Angelique and her sons stayed in the dormitories above ground with the other employees.
Related FAQs
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Where Is Herman Xennt From?
Herman Xennt’s hailed from his hometown of Arnhem, Gelderland, Netherlands. He grew up in Arnhem, a small city in the eastern Netherlands which had been the site of intense fighting during the Second World War.
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When Is Herman Xennt Birthday?
Herman Xennt’s birthday is in November.
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What Is Herman Xennt Height?
Herman Xennt’s height measures under 5 feet 11 inches.
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