Swedish Swedbank suspected of laundering billions of euros including from Russia
Swedish Swedbank is suspected of systematic money laundering, which lasted for about a decade, and was associated with the Baltic branches of Danske Bank, reports Delfi news portal with reference to the Swedish broadcasting corporation (SVT).
According to the "Uppdrag Granskning" program, the cash flow between Swedbank and the Baltic branches of Danske Bank was at least 40 billion Swedish krona (5.8 billion euros). Among them, there are transfers from companies that became known due to large scandals, such as the Russian “case of Sergei Magnitsky” and stories about Azerbaijan’s money laundering system, which laundered money illegally obtained by Azerbaijan’s elite.
According to SVT, remittances, during which money was allegedly laundered, were made between 2007-2015.
Latvia’s center for Investigative journalism, Re: Baltica participated in the investigation, which confirmed that among the clients of the Swedbank Latvian unit were companies whose money or true owners’ identities should have raised questions within the supervising institutions and the bank.
Estonian newspaper Postimees has obtained data on the suspicious cash flows to more than ten Estonian clients’ of Swedbank. The amounts of transactions related to their current accounts exceed millions and at times tens of millions of dollars.
“News about the Swedbank’s possible involvement in money laundering is a “thing of the past”, the bank has already been punished for this,” said the head of the Finance and Capital Market Commission (FCMC), Peters Putnins.
Putnins said that the FCMC will discuss the published information with the bank, however, according to his data, this is a “thing of the past.”
"The FCMC has already punished Swedbank for the internal control shortcomings, and now the bank has eliminated all previously identified issues. In addition, Swedbank has completed the process of closing all non-resident accounts. If it turns out that part of the Danske Bank funds is related to money laundering, we will study how many more banks are involved in this, "he said.