ABN Amro facing more money laundering suspicions

The Public Prosecution Service (OM) added another charge to its investigation into money laundering at ABN Amro. The Dutch bank is now also suspected of damaging money laundering, the OM confirmed to NU.nl after reports in De Telegraaf.

Damaging money laundering means that the bank is suspected of not taking sufficient action against possible criminal acts by customers. The OM believes that ABN Amro had suspicions about money laundering happening through the bank, but did not intervene.

Before this charge was added, ABN Amro was only suspected of not reporting suspicious transactions in time, not doing sufficient customer due diligence, and not breaking ties with suspicious customers in time. The money laundering investigation against ABN Amro was launched in 2019.

A money laundering investigation at ING followed a similar route, with the bank first being suspected of failing to report suspicious transactions on time, and the more serious suspicion of damaging money laundering added later. Recently, the OM announced that board members at ING will be prosecuted personally.

According to De Telegraaf, the same thing could happen at ABN Amro. In January, Financieele Dagblad reported that the OM was investigating what role the ABN Amro board played in money laundering through the bank. If convicted, the board members could face prison time.