Brother and sister Deuss still repudiate accusations

March 20, 2012 11:19 AM

ARNHEM - John and Tineke Deuss still repudiate any illegal banking and making gigantic carrousel fraud possible in England with their First Curaçao International Bank (FCIB) in Nijmegen.

“I disagree with the accusations”, the executive stated before the court in Arnhem yesterday.His sister doesn’t ‘see any grounds’ for the accusations either. According to the Public Prosecutor (OM), British telephone dealers reclaimed unlimited V.A.T. on fake buying transactions via the FCIB.

The mega trial against the 69-year old brother from Bermuda and 66-year old sister from Wales began yesterday. The OM first wants to prove that they formed a criminal organization, that they acted as bankers without a permit and hadn’t reported unusual transactions. A second trail against large-scale money laundering will follow later on. The defense states that the electronic banking with the bank was misused by account holders without the knowledge of Deuss, and that a permit is not necessary because the banking had not occurred in Nijmegen.

The OM explained that 45 percent of the account holders were carrousel frauds, while the other 55 percent were suspected of such. The British Barclay Bank saw the turnover on a FCIB-account increase from 60 million pounds per months to over 1 billion ponds per month. As an example of an ‘unusual transaction’, the OM mentions the 9 million dollars on an account belonging to a daughter of the Russian oligarch Berezovsky at FCIB.

The FIOD raided Deuss’ small castle in Nijmegen in September 2005. On pictures taken earlier by undercover criminal investors from their car, their blouse and their bag, the castle doesn’t resemble a bank, according to the lawyers. Furthermore, the British authorities had already differentiated the sales figures on the Barclay-account.

The trial will take seventeen days. As yet, the determination of the punishment is scheduled on April 3rd and the judgment on May 24th.