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Graphic shows background to the Dankse Bank Estonia scandal.
GN38349EN

CRIME

€200 billion money laundering scandal

By Duncan Mil

September 21, 2018 - Shell companies, mostly registered in London, are being investigated over the laundering of €200 billion of Russian criminal funds through the Estonian branch of Denmark’s largest bank.

As long ago as 2013 a whistleblower warned the management of Danske Bank that family members of Russian President Vladimir Putin and Russia’s FSB spy agency were using its Estonian bank branch for money laundering, in the so-called Laundromat scandal.

The story, broken by Denmark’s Berlingske daily, claims the leaked internal report indicated that the Danske Bank leadership knew “of far more serious conditions than previously stated.”

Now, the UK’s National Crime Agency (NCA) has opened a criminal investigation into a London-registered company with links to the Danske Bank branch at the centre of a €200bn money-laundering scandal.

The NCA’s is investigating a limited liability partnership, or LLP believed to be Lantana Trade LLP. The owners of Lantana are suspected to be Russians with their identities hidden behind a series of foreign shell companies based in the Marshall Islands. Lantana is just one of 21 LLPs tied to the Laundromat scandal.

An internal investigation by Danske has found that as much as €200bn flowed through 15,000 non-resident customers’ accounts between 2007 and 2015. Of these, there were 1,100 British-based accounts at Danske’s Estonian branch in 2013, more than Russian-owned accounts.

Danske Bank told The Associated Press it had carried out “a thorough investigation to get to the bottom of the events at that time in our Estonian branch,” adding it had no comments “until the investigation has (been) finalised.”

Sources
PUBLISHED: 21/09/2018; STORY: Graphic News
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