Bank employee caught defrauding customers for €150,000 to fund his own house

An SNS Bank helpdesk employee was caught defrauding two account holders. He convinced them to pay him over 150,000 euros, saying he’d invest in cryptocurrency for them. Instead, he used that money to buy a house, NOS reports based on rulings by the court of Utrecht and the Banking Disciplinary Court.

The man said he made a “misjudgment” by expanding his own business network while working for the bank but doesn’t see that he did anything else wrong. “Yes, working on your own business while working for someone else is, of course, not allowed,” was his defense. The courts concluded that he “deliberately,” “manipulatively,” and “cunningly” extorted 99,500 euros and 65,000 euros from two victims.

The man started working at SNS Bank’s customer contact center as a seconded employee in early 2022. He had personally been investing in cryptocurrencies for about five years. He did not tell his employer that but did tell customers of the bank during and outside working hours, saying that he could invest for them, too. The bank’s code of conduct prohibits this explicitly.

After about two months, he convinced a customer to transfer 99,500 euros into the man’s private account, promising the customer 4.1 percent interest. After six months of no communication from the bank employee, the customer called his bank’s office only to find out that the man had been fired a few months earlier.

The second victim is an older woman who had gone to her local bank branch for help with the SNS app. She encountered this employee at the branch. He told her that he had to do “something” on the computer for her but didn’t have the time now. Instead, he promised to visit her at home that evening. There, he didn’t help her with the app but talked her into investing in cryptocurrencies with him. The woman eventually gave in and transferred 65,000 euros to him.

The next day, the woman regretted her decision and called the bank. Shocked, SNS Bank immediately refunded her money and reported the employee to its parent company De Volksbank. The man then showed up at the older woman’s house again, saying that he was fired because of her and trying to convince her for the third time to invest in cryptocurrencies with him. She refused.

In the meantime, de Volksbank went through the employee’s emails and dismissed him. They found an email about the “promise of purchase and sale” of a house in Belgium. That was two months before the customer who lost 99,500 euros came to the bank. It then became clear that the man used the defrauded customers’ money to buy this house.

The Volksbank reported the man to the Banking Disciplinary Court. There, the man called his actions a misjudgment. “In summary, I used the bank to expand my network,” he said, according to the ruling. “I knew that this was not allowed. I understand why that was not allowed. I know that I was wrong in this. But the gain for me was greater than the loss of face.”

The disciplinary court ruled that the man acted “deliberately and manipulatively” to “cunningly” extort large sums of money from customers using the bank’s systems. The court was also astonished that the man seemed completely unaware of his wrongdoing. It banned the man from working in banking for three years.

The disciplinary court called the case unique and serious. “This damages trust in the entire banking system,” a spokesperson told NOS. “People must be able to trust that their money is safe.”

The court in Utrecht ruled that the former bank employee must repay the 99,500 euros stolen from the SNS Bank customer plus interest and collection costs.