Danske Bank intends to return $ 230 million to the company in order to get rid of the profit gained from the alleged participation in the international money laundering scheme.
In Danske Bank has not yet decided exactly to whom they will give this large amount, which was obtained on the basis of profits from its Estonian branch, where from 2007 to 2015 it was illegally laundered more than 8 billion dollars, writes Bloomberg.
Chief Executive officer Thomas Borgen said: “it is clear that we should not accept this money.”
“I am glad that Danske Bank agrees with me that it is wrong to earn money received in money laundering,” said business Minister Rasmus Jarlov. “But this does not mean that the authorities will stop the investigation against Danske Bank.”
Jarlov made it clear that the government wants to confiscate any funds that will be proven to have been obtained as a result of crimes. He said that the government is working to find options for measures that can be taken against the Bank.
The head of the business Committee of the Danish Parliament, who oversees the financial legislation together with the Ministry, signals that he was not impressed by the Bank’s gesture to return the money.
The MP pension Fund, which owns $ 20 billion in assets, has put Danske on its blacklist, which means it will stop buying Bank shares. Jens Munch Holst, Director of the Foundation, says Danske needs to ” clean up “to”nothing like this ever happened again.”
The case of laundering is “serious and shows that the control operations were not adequate,” said Anne Kwam, head of responsible investment at KLP Kapitalforvaltning in Oslo.
Many analysts noted that the market still does not know how much the money laundering scandal will cost the Bank. A donation of $ 230 million to the community is well below the average estimate of analysts, according to a Bloomberg survey on a possible fine, the amount may reach $ 670 million.
Recall that through a branch of the Bank in Estonia was laundered about 8.3 billion dollars. The Bank has not yet reported the specific names and names of companies that may have been involved in money laundering. Danske Bank appeared in the” Panama papers” and also appeared in the investigation of OCCRP”Azerbaijani Laundry”. OCCRP analyzed records for two years of four accounts in Danske Bank’s branch in Estonia. Danske Bank itself has also launched an investigation into the work of the Estonian branch on money laundering between 2007 and 2015.
