The Dutch prosecutor's office said it is investigating ING Groep over the global financial firm’s possible role in money laundering and corruption in Uzbekistan.
Prosecutors said on March 22 they are looking at "irregular" transactions involving ING Bank, a unit of ING Groep, as well as "unusual" payments by telecoms firm VimpelCom to a company held by an Uzbek government official.
ING stated in its annual report last week that it is the subject of a Dutch criminal investigation. It added that U.S. authorities had filed information requests with the Dutch bank regarding the investigation.
"The bank is suspected of having failed to report, or report in a timely fashion, irregular transactions," Dutch prosecutors said in a statement. "It is suspected of having enabled international corruption and money laundering."
The prosecutor gave no further details. International investigative journalist collaboration OCCRP said on March 20 that ING was one of more than 730 banks linked to Russian money laundering between January 2011 and October 2014.
VimpelCom, which has its headquarters in the Netherlands, paid 716 million euros in February 2016 to settle its role in the case.
