ING lax on money laundering, agrees €775m out-of-court settlement

DutchNews, September 4, 2018

The public prosecution department has reached a €775m out of court settlement with ING for failing to properly monitor money transfers for potential money laundering. 

The department says between 2010 and 2016, the bank’s clients were effectively able to launder hundreds of millions of euros because ING was not doing its job properly. Banks are required by law to report suspicious transactions.

‘The criminal investigation revealed that ING NL was seriously deficient in this respect. As a result, clients were able to use accounts held with ING NL for criminal activities for many years, virtually undisturbed, the public prosecutor said. 

The settlement is made up of a fine of €675m and a repayment of €100m. 

The probe began in 2016 after it emerged several criminal investigations were underway involving private individuals and companies with an ING account. One of the most notorious is the case of telecoms firm VimpelCom which paid millions of euros in bribes to the daughter of the Uzbekistan president via the bank. 

Another case, the public prosecutor said, involved ‘a women’s underwear trader which was able to launder approximately €150m through its bank accounts held with ING NL. ‘It should have been clear to the bank that the monetary flows had little to do with the lingerie trade and were therefore unusual,’ the department said. 

Warnings

The public prosecutor also said the Dutch central bank, which regulates the financial markets, had warned ING about its performance but that not enough improvements were implemented. 

ING said in a statement that it ‘acknowledges serious shortcomings in the execution of customer due diligence policies to prevent financial economic crime’ and that it ‘sincerely regrets that these shortcomings enabled customers to misuse accounts of ING Netherlands’. 

The bank said it had initiated measures against a number of (former) senior employees. This included both withholding bonuses and suspension.

Related Articles:

ING’s financial chief steps down over money laundering scandal - New

2008 financial crisis: the collapse of Lehman Brothers

"The Recalibration of Awareness – Apr 20/21, 2012 (Kryon channeled by Lee Carroll) (Subjects: Old Energy, Recalibration Lectures, God / Creator, Religions/Spiritual systems (Catholic Church, Priests/Nun’s, Worship, John Paul Pope, Women in the Church otherwise church will go, Current Pope won’t do it), Middle East, Jews, Governments will change (Internet, Media, Democracies, Dictators, North Korea, Nations voted at once),Integrity (Businesses, Tobacco Companies, Bankers/ Financial Institutes, Pharmaceutical company to collapse), Illuminati (Started in Greece, with Shipping, Financial markets, Stock markets, Pharmaceutical money (fund to build Africa, to develop)), Shift of Human Consciousness, (Old) Souls, Women, Masters to/already come back, Global Unity.... etc.) - (Text version)

“… The Shift in Human Nature

You're starting to see integrity change. Awareness recalibrates integrity, and the Human Being who would sit there and take advantage of another Human Being in an old energy would never do it in a new energy. The reason? It will become intuitive, so this is a shift in Human Nature as well, for in the past you have assumed that people take advantage of people first and integrity comes later. That's just ordinary Human nature.

In the past, Human nature expressed within governments worked like this: If you were stronger than the other one, you simply conquered them. If you were strong, it was an invitation to conquer. If you were weak, it was an invitation to be conquered. No one even thought about it. It was the way of things. The bigger you could have your armies, the better they would do when you sent them out to conquer. That's not how you think today. Did you notice?

Any country that thinks this way today will not survive, for humanity has discovered that the world goes far better by putting things together instead of tearing them apart. The new energy puts the weak and strong together in ways that make sense and that have integrity. Take a look at what happened to some of the businesses in this great land (USA). Up to 30 years ago, when you started realizing some of them didn't have integrity, you eliminated them. What happened to the tobacco companies when you realized they were knowingly addicting your children? Today, they still sell their products to less-aware countries, but that will also change.

What did you do a few years ago when you realized that your bankers were actually selling you homes that they knew you couldn't pay for later? They were walking away, smiling greedily, not thinking about the heartbreak that was to follow when a life's dream would be lost. Dear American, you are in a recession. However, this is like when you prune a tree and cut back the branches. When the tree grows back, you've got control and the branches will grow bigger and stronger than they were before, without the greed factor. Then, if you don't like the way it grows back, you'll prune it again! I tell you this because awareness is now in control of big money. It's right before your eyes, what you're doing. But fear often rules. …”