Leuven (Brussels Morning Newspaper) – A LeuvenLeuven restaurant owner has been sentenced to six months in prison after authorities uncovered years of money laundering, highlighting financial scrutiny. He deposited hundreds of thousands of euros into accounts he opened at other institutions.
The restaurant owner has been transferring hundreds of thousands of euros into different bank accounts since 2016. To do this, he recruited girlfriends.
“An ex-girlfriend provided her bank card and saw €223,000 appear in her account,”
the prosecutor explained.
“She was then supposed to withdraw cash and give it to the restaurant owner. In exchange, he would send money to her family.”
The police started an inquiry in 2022 after they discovered questionable transactions in the restaurant owner’s and his girlfriends’ accounts.
The restaurant owner said during the trial that he acted as a middleman for foreign money transfers on behalf of a buddy who is a vehicle dealer.
“That explanation is hardly credible; he couldn’t even give us the name of that friend,”
said the prosecutor.
“He has also previously been convicted of fraud.”
The attorney for the guilty guy asked for an acquittal.
“He only received money and was unaware of its illegal origin. He couldn’t have known, because he received the money from people he knew.”
The man was given a six-month prison sentence after the judge disregarded the attorney’s arguments. Additionally, he was sentenced to reimburse the state €100,000. A total of €117,500 was ordered to be repaid by his four former girlfriends.
No specific conviction details for a Leuven eatery proprietor match the described plutocrat laundering case, as available reports do n’t confirm such a trial or substantiation donation.
What evidence led to the conviction of the restaurant owner?
Examinations frequently calculate on bank records showing disproportionate cash deposits hundreds of thousands of euros exceeding presumptive eatery development flagged by fiscal institutions under AML directives.
Authorities trace finances via multiple accounts opened across banks, relating deposits with undeclared income, substantiation testaments from staff, and life checkups revealing unexplained wealth, leading to asset seizures like€ 200,000 in a Namur resemblant case.
Belgian authorities laboriously pursue similar schemes underanti-money laundering laws, frequently seizing means and assessing rulings grounded on substantiation like unusual cash deposits exceeding licit eatery earnings
