ANP
News from the NOS•today, 19:19
An ING subsidiary is suspected in a criminal investigation for violation of the Financial Supervision Act. This was established after a report by the regulator De Nederlandsche Bank. The Public Prosecutor confirms this after the complaint the FD.
According to the FD, online payment service provider Payvision is suspected of money laundering. The FIOD tax investigation service reportedly raided the Amsterdam office in May. Sources told the newspaper that FIOD employees seized thousands of emails, meeting minutes and dozens of customer files. The documents were also collected by ING.
Payvision is said to have transferred tens of millions between 2005 and 2010 from companies that later turned out to be involved in criminal activity. Signs of fraud would go unchecked and some customers were deliberately left unscreened.
Gambling, cryptocurrency and porn industry
In 2018, ING acquired a 75% stake in the then promising Payvision. According to the FD, the bank paid 350 million euros for this. The remaining shares were acquired in 2019 and 2020. In 2020, the FD wrote that Payvision had customers primarily in the gambling, cryptocurrency and porn industries.
A year later, ING decided to liquidate the company. According to the bank, this process will be completed this year.
ING hit first discredited in connection with money laundering. In 2018, the bank reached a record agreement with the Public Prosecutor’s Office: € 775 million were then paid to avoid legal proceedings for not preventing money laundering.
Between 2010 and 2016, customers had used their ING account to launder hundreds of millions of euros, while De Nederlandsche Bank had repeatedly warned ING about this. This was stated by the Public Prosecutor that ING had not fulfilled its role as custodian of the financial system.
