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September 21, 2018 www.intellinews.com I Page 2
Danske Bank CEO resigns as investigation reveals vast scale of laundering via Estonian branch
The US authorities have long criticised Eurozone banks for not exerting tight enough control over money flows, many of which – especially in former Soviet states Estonia and Latvia – are said to have come from Russia.
“As this is the largest money laundering scandal
in European history, and Danske Bank is a major bank that sends dollars around the world, I imag- ine that this will certainly get the attention of the US authorities,” Bill Browder, the founder and CEO of Hermitage Capital Management, who campaigns against corruption in Russia, told Reuters.
By Danske Bank’s own admission, the scale of op- erations at its Estonian branch was indeed huge.
“We had a large number of non-resident customers in Estonia that we should have never had, and that they carried out large volumes of transactions that should have never happened,” the bank said in a document detailing the results of the investigation.
Macedonia the new battleground for influence between Russia and the West as referendum approaches
and that such moves do not strengthen security, but deepen divisions and tensions in Europe. Mattis was cited by international media as say- ing that Moscow is funding pro-Russian groups to influence the outcome of the referendum due to
“A series of major deficiencies in the bank´s gov- ernance and control systems made it possible to use Danske Bank’s branch in Estonia for suspi- cious transactions,” the bank also said.
Danske Bank established that between 2007 and 2015 its Estonian branch serviced 10,000 non- resident customers and a further 5,000 with “non- resident characteristics” who carried out 9.5mn payments totalling around €200bn.
Banking operations handled by non-resident cus- tomers often hint at money laundering. Estonia’s neighbour Latvia has been ritually lambasted by EU and US authorities for having allowed too much non-resident money in its banking system.
Danske Bank said it would transfer profits made off non-resident customers in Estonia, estimated at DKK1.5bn (€201mn), to an independent foundation that will use the funds to “support initiatives aimed at combating international financial crime, includ- ing money laundering, including in Denmark and Estonia.”
The suspicious activity in a Eurozone bank has encouraged the EU to work on systemic solutions. The European Commission is currently pushing for the EU’s financial watchdog, the European Bank- ing Authority (EBA), to lead efforts for now, before a specialist agency is created.
take place on September 30. A yes vote in the refer- endum will allow the deal with Greece to go ahead, which in turn will unblock Macedonia's EU and Nato integration processes.
“They have transferred money, and they’re also conducting broader influence campaigns,” Mattis was quoted as saying.
Mattis gave the statement to journalists travelling with him to Skopje, where he had a joint news con- ference with Prime Minister Zoran Zaev and De- fence Minister Radmila Sekerinska, although in the Macedonian capital he did not mention anything about Russian influence.