Danske Bank admits fraud, to pay $2 bln fine: US

COPENHAGEN

Danske Bank, Denmark’s largest, has pleaded guilty to defrauding American banks in order to sneak money from criminals in Russia and elsewhere into the U.S. financial system and will forfeit $2 billion, the Justice Department has said.

The Danish bank misled U.S. banks about its Estonia branch’s anti-money laundering controls so as to facilitate access to the U.S. financial system for high-risk customers outside Estonia, including in Russia, the department said in a statement.

“Today’s guilty plea by Danske Bank and two-billion-dollar penalty demonstrate that the Department of Justice will fiercely guard the integrity of the U.S. financial system from tainted foreign money - Russian or otherwise,” said Deputy Attorney General Lisa Monaco.

The bank was accused of laundering some 200 billion euros ($212 billion at today’s exchange rate) from 2007 to 2015.
The scandal erupted in 2018.

Danske Bank Estonia had a profitable business line with non-resident customers called the NRP, which it lured by saying they could transfer large amounts of money through that bank with little to no oversight, the Justice Department said.

Danske Bank employees conspired with NRP customers to hide the true nature of their transactions, including by using shell companies to conceal the true owners, it added.

Separately, the bank has agreed to pay the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission $413 million to settle charges that it misled investors about its compliance with anti-money laundering requirements, the SEC said.