Danske Bank Has Been Ordered To Pay Hundreds Of Millions In Denmark For Its Money Laundering Failings In Estonia

• Published date: 22 December 2022
• Subject Matter: Government, Public Sector, Criminal Law, Money Laundering, White Collar Crime, Anti-Corruption & Fraud
• Law Firm: Rahman Ravelli Solicitors
• Author: Dr. Angelika Hellweger

Angelika Hellweger of financial crime specialists Rahman Ravelli details the Danish bank's shortcomings.

Danske Bank has been made to pay 4.7 billion kroner ($671 million) after admitting failing to report suspicious activity at its Estonia branch promptly to Denmark's financial intelligence unit.

The court in Copenhagen ordered the bank to pay a 3.5 billion kroner fine and forfeit the 1.2 billion kroner that was its profit from processing the potentially illicit transactions.

The Danish Public Prosecutor's office stated that Danske Bank waited more than two years to shut down its Estonian branch's non-resident portfolio after a whistleblower first raised concerns in 2013 about money laundering on a huge scale by customers.

The whistleblower, a former manager at Danske Bank in Copenhagen, was said to have reported that an alleged $240 billion money laundering scheme was being conducted at Danske's Estonian operations. Money was being laundered from Russia and former Soviet republics to western banks. In the Copenhagen hearing, Danske admitted a failure to identify ultimate beneficial owners, shortcomings in its transaction monitoring system and very limited suspicious activity reporting to the relevant authorities. The bank also accepted there was not enough communication between its...