The Danish Danske Bank can breathe a sigh of relief: A US judge accepted a guilty plea and a billion-dollar fine from the bank in one of the largest money laundering scandals in the world. The investigations in this context can thus be discontinued.
Danske Bank confessed to the bank fraud conspiracy in the United States at the end of 2022. In addition, according to the US Department of Justice, the bank agreed to pay a fine of more than two billion dollars.
212 billion dollars flowed
The bank admitted to defrauding US banks between 2008 and 2016. According to prosecutors, the Estonian office of Danske Bank lured Russian customers, among other things, with the prospect of transferring large amounts of money without much supervision. About 212 billion dollars then flowed through the US financial system from these customers via the branch that has since been closed.
According to US authorities, Danske employees used shell companies to disguise ownership of funds. According to the information, Danske has known about illegal transactions since at least 2014.