The Court of Appeal in The Hague on Friday rejected a request for challenge from former ING CEO Ralph Hamers from Simpelveld.
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The Court can now continue the personal questioning of Hamers and decide, partly on the basis of his testimony, to prosecute him for a money laundering affair.
Negligence
With his request for challenge, Ralph Hamers tried to avoid having to testify about the money laundering affair that resulted in a fine of 775 million euros for ING in September 2018. That was because of negligence in combating money laundering. At the time, the Ministry of Justice indicated that it saw no grounds for prosecuting individual ING employees.
Various parties, including financial activist Pieter Lakeman with his Business Information Research Foundation (SOBI), want Hamers to be prosecuted for the matter.
Victims
Hamers, who left ING at the end of 2019, is about to start working at the Swiss bank UBS. He recently received a call to the Court of Appeal in The Hague to provide a text and explanation about the bank’s inadequate anti-money laundering policy. This happened in a so-called article 12 procedure that victims are conducting to enforce prosecution of Hamers and the bank. ING was also asked to tell its story.
Out of harm’s way
The complainants accuse the CEO of having known, among other things, the lack of supervision of money laundering practices at the bank. ING received a hefty fine last year, but the top of the bank remained out of harm’s way. ING’s financial director Koos Timmermans left in the aftermath of the affair.
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