Dutch anti-fraud police Thursday raided 12 sites across the Netherlands including two mosques over suspected money-laundering and links to a US-blacklisted charity, officials and reports said. All 12 locations had ties to an unidentified organisation, which is suspected of laundering hundreds of thousands of euros through its educational institutions and charities, the police said in a statement.
Neither the organisation nor the exact amount of money involved was revealed by the Fiscal Information and Investigation Service (FIOD) and the prosecution service which led the raids. But they said a father and his two sons were the main suspects, as they had held management positions on 10 foundations, three of which were under investigation. One foundation helped refugees and the homeless, while two others were involved in education.
One of the foundations had "received a large transfer of euros from a charitable organisation in the Middle East which has been put on a sanctions list by the Americans," the statement said, again without naming the black-listed group. Large sums of money had also been transferred to The Netherlands from Saudi Arabia, as well as Jordan, Syria, Lebanon and Ukraine. Some of the funds were then sent back abroad again, the FIOD said in a statement.
The investigation was launched after the FIOD became aware of at least 10 suspicious transactions since 2012. Dutch media reported the al-Fitrah mosque in the central town of Utrecht and the As-Sunnah mosque in southern Tilburg were among the 12 locations raided on Thursday. Other searches were carried out in The Hague and Nieuwegein, with police saying they had seized records and digital files. "Tackling money laundering is a priority for the government, as it has great importance for the effective fight against all forms of serious crime," the police said.