Hoekstra warns: ‘More misery about money laundering will come out’ | NOW

Minister of Finance Wopke Hoekstra warns that more reports will appear about money laundering practices in the near future. In the coming months and years we will find more misery from the past with regard to money laundering, “the minister said in the Lower House on Tuesday.

“We will lift more paving stones and then more will come out”, Hoekstra said.

The minister was called to the Chamber by PvdA member Gijs van Dijk to provide a text and explanation about the report that the Russian oligarch and multi-billionaire Roman Abramovich made suspicious payments for more than 1.3 billion dollars (more than 1.1 billion euros). via ING in Amsterdam.

Faithful, The Financial Times and research collective Research reported extensively about this on Monday after an international investigation into documents from the US anti-money laundering authority FinCEN and secret bank documents.

The documents show, among other things, that two Dutch companies may have billions of illegal dollars funneled away from Russia. Rich Russians could secretly move their money to the West. An ING subsidiary in Poland played an important role in this

“Why does Abramovich bank with a Dutch bank?” Van Dijk wanted to know. “This is a subsidiary of ING. The Netherlands must be able to do something, right?” Asked ChristenUnie MP Eppo Bruins.

In addition to the warning that more such messages would appear, Hoekstra could say little about the state of affairs.

He spoke with the Dutch regulators DNB and AFM and with ING. Furthermore, this is the responsibility of the Polish regulator, because the alleged money laundering practices took place there. Hoekstra will soon discuss this with his Polish counterpart.

“We have a huge problem with money laundering in the Netherlands”, Hoekstra admitted. That is why measures have recently been taken and the cabinet is committed to a European approach. “But we must not be naive, more is needed,” said the minister.

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