€15 million 'bonus fine' for ABN Amro

Law firm Allen & Overy was eager to take over a Wall Street rival. Last year, they finally succeeded. But no one in Amsterdam foresaw the boomerang effect that followed this year: a hated capitulation of the American office to the Trump administration. The deal came as a bombshell to the Dutch staff, says FD editor Jennifer Mol.

ABN Amro paid some of its senior management bonuses totaling €1.5 million for years. They violated the rules and De Nederlandsche Bank has therefore imposed a fine of €15 million. A years-long discussion between the bank and the supervisory authority has now come to an end, as appears from the fine decision. Editor Mathijs Rotteveel explains what that discussion was about and how it resulted in this hefty fine.

Olaf H. must go to jail for trying to extort €2.2 million from former Jumbo CEO Frits van Eerd. The court in Den Bosch sentenced him to two years in prison on Thursday, one year of which is suspended. Co-suspect Mustapha Y. is sentenced to 200 hours of community service, plus a suspended prison sentence of almost one and a half years. The two suspects tried to extort €2.2 million from Van Eerd in March 2023 by sending him a threatening letter. FD editor Jan Braaksma explains exactly how that went.

Do you want to hear everything about the Frits van Eerd case and how it got this far? Then listen to the brand new season of the FD investigative podcast Behind Closed Doors, made by FD journalist Paulien Sewuster. The first two episodes will be online today. Next week, when the hearing is in full swing, you will hear the sequel. 'The Frits van Eerd case' can be listened to via the FD app and all podcast platforms.