BRUSSELS – A Belgian banker has been arrested under suspicion of siphoning off EUR 25 million to accounts in Luxembourg.

The stash of money has not yet been recovered, it was reported on Thursday.

Known only as Regine L., the long-serving ING bank employee was escorted by police from her office to the public prosecutor in Luxembourg.

She is suspected of having stolen the money over many years from under the noses of the bank’s customers and her employers.

The prosecutor’s office confirmed that a substantial sum of money was at stake.

In the course of her career in Luxembourg, Regine dealt often with foreign customers, including a number of Belgians, who wanted to keep their money in the Grand Duchy.

She devised a system to keep their money without opening a bank account and her meetings with clients always took place outside the bank.

All written transactions were done on false documents created by Regine herself.

The scam went unnoticed for 20 years as Regine placed the money, with receipts, in the bank.

However, a recent internal audit brought some irregularities to light.

The banker finally started to crack when she realised that she was approaching the end of her career and nobody would be able to deal with her customers.

She consulted a lawyer who told her to confess what she had done to the police.

The details of how many people may have been affected by the scam have still to be established.

[Copyright Expatica 2004]

Subject: Belgian news