Russian billionaire used ING for €1 billion in suspicious transactions: Report
Russian oil billionaire and owner of football club Chelsea, Roman Abramovich, made over 1 billion euros in transactions via bank accounts at ING that were labelled as suspicious by Deutsche Bank, Investico, Trouw, and Financieele Dagblad report based on the FinCEN Files - 2,600 documents that leaked from American money laundering authority FinCEN.
In 2016, Abramovich sent money from Cyprus via ING Amsterdam to the British Virgin Islands. Deutsche Bank, which handles a large part of ING's dollar transactions, flagged the transactions with ING. Deutsche Bank labeled the transactions as 'round-tripping', where money passes through different banks, companies and countries with no clear economic purpose, often to disguise the origin of the money.
The FinCEN documents show that ING replied to Deutsche Bank that it did not consider the transactions suspicious, according to the newspapers.
A spokesperson for Abramovich told the newspapers that the payments were part of his companies' restructuring and that they were subject to extensive controls. "Abramovich's financial affairs are in full compliance with international tax laws and regulations, suggesting otherwise is unjustified," the spokesperson said.
A spokesperson for ING told NOS that the bank does not comment on individual customers and transactions - the same statement the bank gave the broadcaster on Monday after other reports about ING's involvement in suspicious transactions involving Russian money.
