Dutch bank (DNB) revoked the license of money exchange institution Suri-Change. The Rotterdam company has been the subject of criminal investigations since the spring. According to prosecutors, Suri-Change was involved in drug money laundering and large-scale underground banking operations.
The company is no longer registered with DNB since last week. The supervisor does not want to go into details for confidentiality reasons. According to lawyer Ayşe Çimen, the decision is not yet final: Suri-Change may appeal within the next six weeks. “Suri-Change has been around for over thirty years and has never committed a crime,” he previously said.
In March, police raided several of Suri-Change’s offices and arrested five people. Following the raid, explosives were detonated in various branches in Amsterdam, The Hague and Rotterdam. Later, all places were closed by municipalities.
so far good
The foreign exchange office has had two licenses from DNB since 2004. One is for sending money abroad without needing a bank, the other is for currency exchange.
In July, ING ended its relationship with the company and the bank closed all accounts with Suri-Change. The currency exchange company admitted to Nieuwsuur that same month that it had reported hundreds of unusually late payments to the government in recent years.
In 2014, DNB fined Suri-Change also in connection with money laundering practices.
police cooperation
Following the raids, the police also ended their long-standing cooperation with Suri-Change. The seized foreign currencies were converted into euros and deposited into the police account. In 2017, police raided Suri-Change for money laundering. The collaboration was subsequently suspended, but was later resumed.
Source: NOS
Roy Brown is a renowned economist and author at The Nation View. He has a deep understanding of the global economy and its intricacies. He writes about a wide range of economic topics, including monetary policy, fiscal policy, international trade, and labor markets.
