In 2014, it was twenty years ago that the obligation to report unusual transactions was included in Dutch legislation. An obligation to report to keep our financial system sound and to combat the laundering of criminal moneys. The financing of terrorism was added at a later stage.
Elsewhere on our website you can find what groups of enterprises are subject to this duty to report. A legal obligation automatically entails that compliance must be monitored, which is done by five supervisory bodies. Each year, there are a few reporting entities that fail to comply with their obligation to report, either on purpose or as a result of negligence.
This is why, over the past few years, target-oriented action was taken against the entities in question. Under the direction of the Public Prosecution Service, official reports were drawn up against these entities when their violations came to light.
Last month (November 2014), again, a number of offenders had to face charges. This time, the highest fine for failing to report an unusual transaction was €150,000, of which €30,000 conditional. This is a hefty fine, but violation of the legal obligation to report is not just a misdemeanour, no matter whether the entity is large or small. A car dealer from the Randstad urban conglomerate, for instance, was fined €19,000 for failing to report to FIU-the Netherlands the cash sale of an expensive car, whereas, of course, this should have been reported, because the purchase sum considerably exceeded the reporting limit of €25,000.
Partly on the basis of FIU-the Netherlands analyses, the Dutch Public Prosecution Service will continue to prosecute reporting entities suspected of non-compliance with the obligation to report in the future.