ZWOLLE, WILLEMSTAD - The accountant saw nothing wrong with it, the bank was silent and it was at most "gray area" in which a 53-year-old trader did business in Curaçao, said the prosecutors to the judge in Zwolle. Together with a brother and a cousin, the man is suspected of having laundered a total of 322 million American dollars in Curaçao and in the Netherlands.
"The authorities, including banks and accountants, have not properly performed their watchdog function," said one of the two prosecutors.
Itzhak G. (53) is a member of a renowned family of business owners who have made a name for themselves in Curaçao since the 1960s. In 2007 he was requested by a Venezuelan friend to "swipe dollars". The man pinned a few thousand dollars with his Venezuelan bank card as if he were buying lingerie at the suspect's company. The only thing he wanted in return was to pay the dollar amount in cash, minus ten percent commission for G.
The businessman thought it was the easiest ten percent he ever earned. G. did not know what the Venezuelan wanted with that money, he only saw an interesting business model. He noticed that it also happened elsewhere. In a Swatch branch of the family in Aruba, the annual turnover suddenly went from 250,000 to 1.5 million dollars. Subsequently, large-scale "swiping" for Venezuelans. So much so that the fingers of his secretary became “blue” from entering the numbers of the bank cards of the customers.
The bank on Curaçao then asked him whether his company suddenly sold so much lingerie. But no further comments or comments were made, said G. "Only that I had to make copies of the customers' passports and ask them for signatures."
False invoices
So far, the story of the prime suspect still seemed fairly innocent. But for every transaction there was a counterfeit pin receipt and a counterfeit invoice. Because the Venezuelans had to prove at home that they had actually bought scarce goods. The dollars there soon proved to be worth ten times as much, the public prosecutor explained.
Venezuela has curtailed foreign currency trade because its own currency is particularly unstable. If everyone suddenly starts paying in dollars, the currency drops further. To give wealthy residents the opportunity to buy lingerie or medicines abroad, among other things, they received a "debit card" issued by the state. With this money could be paid abroad at a fixed rate with dollars. Certainly, it was not intended that hundreds of millions of dollars would flow into Venezuela in this way. Something that happened with help from I.G., his 45-year-old brother Omer G. and their cousin Izchak Z. (45) from Amsterdam, said the Public Prosecution Service (OM).
The monetary policy of Venezuela has been seriously disrupted by these suspects, said one of the two prosecutors in the courtroom. "This behavior contributed to the further economic slump in the country." I.G. looks at it differently afterwards. He should have stopped swiping earlier. But he didn't deal with former criminals, he said. "It was never about money from the criminal world." He is sorry, he said. "I have lost almost everything."
Accountant
Banks and accountants have been sleeping, according to the Public Prosecution Service. The conscious accountant of the family received a warning earlier this year from the Accountants Chamber. The case gets a little tail, the OM reported, which has since been appealed. The officer found the measure too low. Although banks initially did not pay enough attention, according to the OM, the criminal case started rolling through a FIU report from an ING branch in the Netherlands.
Because Venezuela always came up with different rules to curb swiping, it became necessary for the family to start businesses in Europe. Through their Amsterdam cousin they had an entrance in the Netherlands. ING found it remarkable that this company generated a turnover of more than 100 million euros in a relatively short time.
At the start of the investigation, it was thought that the "swiped dollars" mainly concerned criminal money. One of their clients and suppliers of dollars was Robbie dos Santos. He was previously convicted of fraud and money laundering of more than 34 million euros. But of the total amount of $ 322 million in this case, "only" $ 18 million comes from criminals. However, the rest are also laundered because these dollars were obtained under false pretenses.
The OM also considered that the two brothers were guilty of fraud and forgery. The case started rolling when a Dutch ING branch rang the bell. Itzhak G. (53) heard 3 years in jail, of which more than 2 years were conditional. His younger brother Omer G. (45) has been imprisoned for 2 years, of which 45 days are unconditional.
Both brothers live in the United States. Their cousin heard a demand of a 200-hour suspended sentence. This penalty requirement is considerably lower because he would have only provided manual and emergency services. With the unimaginably high amount, about ten percent of the Gross National Product of Curaçao went through the hands of the G. family.
It is presumably a total of more than one million debit card transactions. The Public Prosecution Service believes that a large part of the punishment can be conditionally imposed because the suspects were open about matters. Moreover, this was agreed in advance with the lawyers. In return, the suspects have ceded just about all possessions that they had.
The case will continue later this month. Then it will also be known when the court will deliver the judgment.