The settlement follows a probe into the Danish lender’s conduct across several nations after the bank's now-closed Estonia branch allowed about €200bn in funds from high-risk clients in Russia and other countries to flow through the US financial system
Danske Bank headquarters in Copenhagen, Denmark. (Credit: RL0919/Wikipedia)
Danish lender Danske Bank has pleaded guilty to charges of money laundering at its Estonian branch and agreed to pay a $2bn penalty to end a US probe into the fraud on US banks. займ на карту.
According to the US Justice Department, the Danish bank pleaded guilty to conspiring to commit bank fraud and confessed to providing banking services to suspicious customers, including some in Russia, via its Estonian branch, in spite of knowing there was a risk of money laundering.
The settlement follows a probe into the Danish lender’s conduct across several nations after the bank’s now-closed Estonia branch allowed about €200bn ($212bn) in funds from high-risk clients in Russia and other countries to flow through the US financial system.
US Attorney Damian Williams for the Southern District of New York said: “For years, Danske Bank lied and deceived US banks to pump billions of dollars of suspicious and criminal funds through the US financial system.
“In doing so, Danske Bank, the largest bank in Denmark, deliberately disregarded US law of which it is well aware, facilitated the laundering of criminal and suspicious proceeds through the United States, and placed the US financial network at risk, all in the name of its bottom line. The bank is now being held to account.”
The bank said it will pay $1.21bn to the US Justice Department, $179m to the US Securities and Exchange Commission and $679m to the Danish Special Crime Unit.
Danske Bank chairman of the board of directors Martin Blessing said: “The resolutions mark the end of the investigations into Danske Bank by US and Danish authorities. We have cooperated since we were approached by the authorities and accept the terms of the resolutions.
“We offer our unreserved apology and take full responsibility for the unacceptable failures and misconduct of the past, which have no place at Danske Bank today.
“We have learnt from our mistakes and we have taken the steps necessary to ensure that Danske Bank has robust measures in place to do everything possible to prevent these failures from taking place again.”