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A recent ruling by the interim relief judge of the Amsterdam District Court provided an interesting decision on the issue of proof regarding banks' duty of care to third parties in fraud cases. The case involved an American woman, a client of our firm, who had been the victim of a hack in which €200,000 had been transferred to the account of a money mule with an account at ING. Although the main claim was [...]
A money mule or “money mule” is a person who makes his checking account available to a criminal to receive and transfer criminal loot. If the criminal approaches the money mule, the crime (in which the bank account of the money mule plays a central role) has yet to be committed. The damage can be high.
Pay with bitcoins? Then it could be fraud. We are seeing a strong increase in fraud with investment products via cryptocurrencies at our office. If an "investment firm" asks you to pay "investment" via bitcoins, which you must first purchase via a "wallet" at a (reliable) company, realize that fraudsters have their reasons for not getting paid via the bank . Anonymously Payments with cryptocurrencies can be transferred more anonymously and faster to a wallet [...]
A boiler room is a criminal organization that extorts money from people through fake investments. Boilerrooms disappear after a while and the loot is often hard to find after that. Method There is not one typical method for this criminal activity. Many boiler rooms approach their victims by telephone and persuade them to invest via a website. This website can give access to a (fake) account where the victim is led to believe that his [...]
When you think of a duty of care of banks, you think in the first place of the customers. But the duty of care can also relate to third parties. For example, a customer of the bank can be a swindler, who uses the checking account to receive deposits from victims, after which that money is funneled away. Can you sue the bank for the damage? Is the bank expected to monitor suspicious transactions from its own customers to protect non-customer third parties?
ING has been fined by the Public Prosecution Service because the bank does not act properly against money launderers. Criminals who transfer money through ING are not dealt with properly by the bank. There are many developments in the field of money laundering, mainly due to new technological possibilities. De Nederlandsche Bank (DNB) not only supervises the stability, but – in keeping with the spirit of the times – also the integrity of the financial [...]