THE HAGUE: A Dutch court on Wednesday ordered the prosecution of the head of Swiss banking giant UBS, Ralph Hamers, over money laundering when he was CEO of the Dutch lender ING.
ING settled a €775 million laundering probe with Dutch authorities in 2018 after it failed to ensure that people were not hiding cash used for illegal purposes in its accounts.
Hamers took over at UBS in September, with the Swiss bank describing him as the “right CEO to lead our business into its next chapter” having steered ING through the 2008 financial crisis.
The Hague court of appeal said in a statement that it was “of the opinion that there are sufficient leads for a successful prosecution of this former director as the de facto supervisor of the criminal offences committed by ING”.
“The facts are serious, no settlement has been reached with the director himself, nor has he taken public responsibility for his actions,” it added.