AWDC Slams "Shocking" Money Laundering Claims
December 23, 24
(IDEX Online) - The Antwerp World Diamond Centre (AWDC) has reacted angrily to what it calls a "shocking" newspaper report that suggests Belgium's diamond industry is not committed to combating money laundering.
It says the article, published last week in the Dutch-language De Tijd newspaper, "unfairly casts the diamond sector in an unjustifiably negative light".
The story concerns a 43-year-old Ukrainian-French woman, named only as Iryna G, who is at the center of a complex criminal investigation over food supplies to the Ukraine military and allegations of money laundering.
The newspaper says more than €4.7m ($4.9m) of suspicious cash was found in the back of a car in Ukraine as part of the investigation.
The link to Antwerp's diamond industry is that the suspect runs a jewelry company, called IKG, which has an office at the Diamond Club of Antwerp.
But what has caused such an angry reaction is the "insinuation" that Antwerp is not fully commited to fighing money laundering.
AWDC said in a statement: "The article's insinuations about alleged connections between Antwerp's diamond industry and a fraud case involving food deliveries to Ukraine's Defense Ministry are speculative, lack factual basis, and are solely based on the fact that the implicated company — a jewelry business without the required license to operate as a diamond company — rents an office in the Antwerp Diamond Club."
It said doubts expressed in the story about the "will of Antwerp's diamond sector to combat money laundering" were "outright shocking".
AWDC said: "Antwerp's diamond industry is one of the most heavily regulated sectors in Belgium, adhering to the strictest anti-money laundering (AML) regulations."
The conclusion of the De Tijd story, which has prompted such anger in Antwerp, says: "The diamond sector itself must also report all suspicious cash flows to the anti-money laundering unit, but the entire diamond sector only did so twice in the whole of 2023.
"This in turn raises questions about the will of the Antwerp diamond world to join the fight against money laundering."
Pic of cash in the car courtesy Ukraine's Economic Security Bureau (ESBU).