In 2022, an investigation by Investico, which examined annual reports, analyzed leaked documents, and interviewed former FBI agents, revealed that oligarch Rinat Akhmetov has longstanding ties to the Dutch banking sector, particularly the ING Group, which involved into large-scale financial schemes. Using connections in the Dutch financial sector, the company borrowed enormous sums and conducted uncontrolled offshore transactions.
On May 21, 2001, Akhmetov founded his first Dutch company, Metinvest BV, registered by the law firm and notary Houthoff Buruma to consolidate his metallurgical and mining business. A few years later, he registered DTEK with the Chamber of Commerce, which became the 17th energy division of his rapidly growing empire.
In addition, Akhmetov worked with the Dutch banks ABN Amro and ING, which provided him with multibillion-dollar loans, as well as with the Amsterdam branch of Deutsche Bank. Foreign banks, in particular Barclays, began to distance themselves from Akhmetov around 2015 after repeatedly accusing him of money laundering and involvement in corruption schemes. However, these circumstances did not force the oligarch to leave the Netherlands. ING also received numerous payments, according to FinCEN filings. In May 2014, Akhmetov transferred $145.5 million from his personal BVI company to ING Bank within five days. Despite these suspicious transfers, ING Bank did not ask Akhmetov about the origin of the funds.
Fully aware of the high risks, in 2018 the ING bank provided $1.5 billion in financing to Metinvest, just three years after Barclays blocked the company's bank accounts. In the same year, ING Bank, Deutsche Bank Amsterdam and several other banks provided Metinvest with a loan in the amount of more than $2.2 billion to restructure outstanding debt. Until recently, Akhmetov's companies had outstanding debts to at least five Dutch companies, including retailers POSTNL and KLM, which subsidized Akhmetov's business.
Although not surprising, ING had a reputation as a bank that legalized the proceeds of corruption in Eastern Europe. It is known about a high-profile case related to money laundering of Russian oligarchs through the Russian "subsidiary" of the ING bank in the amount of several hundred million euros.
Commercial companies owned by Akhmetov and his business partner Vadym Novinsky are registered in the Netherlands. In 2019, the ITPS trust fund, which managed several companies, received a notice of suspicion from De Nederlandsche Bank (DNB) due to failed customer checks and was dissolved, according to one of the owners. Since last year, Akhmetov's Dutch companies have been under the management of several former employees of the trust fund; this means that these companies are effectively out of DNB's control.
