Danske Bank Money Laundering ‘Is Biggest Scandal in Europe’
The European commission has described the €200bn (£178m) money-laundering case at Denmark’s largest bank as “the biggest scandal” in
Vera Jourová, the European commissioner for justice, said she would summon ministers from
“I want to understand better where the main errors happened, whether it was purely a fault of the due diligence done by the bank itself or whether there was some mistake of the supervisory authority,” Jourová told reporters on Thursday.
She added: “This is the biggest scandal, which we have now in
Denmark’s prime minister also expressed his shock at the scale of the scandal, describing it as “frankly quite horrible” as he vowed to take further action against
Lars Løkke Rasmussen said he was outraged at the scale of the money-laundering operation at Danske’s Estonian branch. An independent investigation published on Wednesday found that 15,000 customers were involved in suspicious transactions.
“The fact that
The Danish regulator financial regulator said it had reopened its investigation into the bank. “We’re reopening the investigation of the bank that we initially closed in May,” Jesper Berg, the head of Denmark’s Financial Supervisory Authority (FSA) told the Danish broadcaster TV 2 on Thursday. “When new information comes to light, then we will always see if there is more to come. We have been following the case since May. But now the work we have in this matter intensifies.”
Earlier this week Danish politicians voted through an eight-fold increase in the maximum fines for money laundering – making it one of the toughest jurisdictions in
Denmark’s business minister, Rasmus Jarlov, said he expected that Danish authorities could fine Danske 4 billion Danish kroner (£475m). Analysts expect Danske to be fined billions of dollars by Danish, European and US regulators. The bank on Wednesday said it would donate 1.5bn kroner to a charity focused on “combating international financial crime”.
Jarlov said: “We’re aware that foreign authorities are monitoring Danish banks and could open cases. But that just makes it even more important that we handle things thoroughly in
Jeppe Kofod, a Danish a member of the European parliament and the commission’s spokesman on tax evasion and money laundering, said US authorities were examining the case and he expected a full investigation.
“I was in the US in July and spoke with the Treasury Department and there is no doubt that they also follow the
Bill Browder, a US hedge fund manager who has been leading a crusade against corruption and money laundering by rich and powerful Russians, has claimed that Danske’s Estonian branch was involved in the fraud uncovered by his lawyer Sergei Magnitsky, who was beaten to death in a
Danske’s shares, which have lost 28% of their value so far this year, rose 4.5% on Thursday after UBS advised clients to buy the shares. “The 87-page report on the non-resident portfolio contained a number of positives in our view,” Johan Ekblom, a UBS analyst said in a note referring to the lack of a formal US investigation. “We think