A court verdict was issued in a case of illegal banking activities. According to investigators, more than 8 million euros were withdrawn from the Netherlands, in particular, money was withdrawn to countries such as Spain, Great Britain and the United Arab Emirates. All these impressive transactions were in no way controlled by the Dutch National Bank (De Nederlandsche Bank - DNB). The prosecutor's office demanded a sentence of 55 months in prison, but accused A. received a much shorter sentence.
What was the charge?
The accused was engaged in illegal banking activities. While you were drinking coffee or waiting for the tram, he would receive bags and packages full of money and arrange for them to be sent to recipients outside the Netherlands. The investigation believes that the underground banker illegally earned about 160 thousand euros. He was found to have 2 cars; in addition, according to the investigation, he was preparing to buy a house in Turkey.
During a search in the defendant’s house, they found an encrypted phone with a chat about transferring money, where sums of at least 1000 euros were mentioned, more often we are talking about tens and hundreds of thousands. In the house of an underground banker, they found 56 euros in cash, most of the money in 000 euro bills, which are very popular among criminals, including drug dealers. The money was hidden in office furniture. The accused stated that the amount found belonged to his son.
The prosecutor's office considered that this was sufficient evidence that the accused not only illegally withdrew funds abroad, but also laundered criminal money.
What did the lawyers say?
The defendant did not deny the fact of conducting illegal transactions through his account, but lawyers stated that this activity took place during anti-Covid restrictions. Then traditional trade and supply chain schemes were no longer available, so other methods had to be found. Allegedly, the transferred money was used to purchase masks.
As for laundering criminal money, lawyers said that there is no question of cooperation with criminals. In their opinion, in a huge chat, if they were talking about drugs, they would definitely be mentioned, but there is not a single such mention in the chat. For this reason, the lawyers stated that we are talking exclusively about an economic crime, and accordingly, the period of 3 months that the accused spent in pre-trial detention is a sufficient punishment for his offense.
Приговор
Usually judges take 2 weeks to make a decision, but this case seemed confusing to the judge, and he took 5 weeks to make a decision. At the end of this period, the judge dismissed the prosecutor's charges of money laundering. The reason is that in none of the 83 illegal transactions was it proven that money obtained from crime was transferred. For illegal economic activities, the underground banker received 12 months in prison; taking into account the pre-trial detention, he had 9 months left to serve his sentence.
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