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Several European banks have been drawn into money-laundering allegations centered on dirty Russian money. Much of the information has been made available to media outfits by The Organized Crime and Corruption Reporting Project, or OCCRP. Investigations into the scandal are under way in the Baltic nations, the US, the UK and the Nordic countries. Below is a list of the main banks touched by the scandal.
Danske Bank A/S
Denmark’s biggest bank admitted in September that much of about $230bn that flowed through its tiny Estonian unit between 2007 and 2015 was probably suspicious in origin.
The lender is being investigated by the U.S. Department of Justice and the Securities and Exchange Commission, as well as by authorities in Denmark, Estonia, the U.K. and France.
Swedbank AB
Swedish broadcaster SVT alleged that almost $6bn in suspicious transactions flowed between Danske Bank and Swedbank in 2007-2015, linking the Swedish bank to Danske’s $230bn money-laundering scandal.
The bank is being investigated by the financial supervisory authorities of Sweden and Estonia. It’s also being probed by Sweden’s Economic Crime Authority for allegedly breaching insider information rules.
Nordea Bank Abp
The biggest Nordic bank allegedly handled about €700m in potentially dirty money, with funds arriving from failed Lithuanian bank Ukio Bankas and heading to shell companies in countries such as the British Virgin Islands and Panama, according to Finnish broadcaster YLE.
Investor Bill Browder filed complaints with Nordic authorities in October alleging $405m of suspicious funds flowed via the bank. Sweden decided not to investigate but Finland has yet to say if it will.
Deutsche Bank AG
More than $889m went from accounts at Deutsche Bank to those of the so-called "Troika Laundromat" between 2003 and 2017, according to German daily Süddeutsche Zeitung—part of the OCCRP journalist group.
The report comes on top of regulatory scrutiny of Deutsche Bank’s role as a correspondent bank in Danske Bank’s money-laundering scandal and a probe by German prosecutors of its involvement in a tax-evasion scheme unmasked by the Panama Papers in 2016.
Raiffeisen Bank International AG
The Austrian bank that’s among the biggest foreign lenders in Russia is the main target of a filing by the Hermitage Fund, detailing $634m allegedly transferred to it from Lithuania’s Ukio Bankas and from the Estonian unit of Danske Bank. Hermitage said the bank ignored signs that should have triggered money-laundering prevention measures.
Raiffeisen has launched an internal probe, yet also points out that Hermitage has filed similar allegations before and that they were dismissed by Austrian authorities.
ABN Amro Group NV
The Troika Laundromat moved about €190m through a unit of the Dutch bank that became part of Royal Bank of Scotland, Dutch newspaper Trouw and magazine De Groene Amsterdammer reported. All assets, data and clients of the unit became the legal responsibility of RBS in February 2008, ABN said.
The Dutch financial crimes police declined to comment on whether it was investigating the bank.
Cooperatieve Rabobank U.A.
About €43m were paid to the Rabobank account of Dutch yacht builder Heesen for construction of two boats for Russian senator Valentin Zavadnikov, according to newspaper Trouw and magazine De Groene Amsterdammer. The money came from the Troika Laundromat scheme, the media outlets said.
The Dutch financial crimes police declined to comment on whether it was investigating the bank.
ING Groep NV
The Dutch bank’s branch in Moscow worked until 2013 with a client who it suspected of involvement in money laundering, the media outlets said.
The Dutch financial crimes police declined to comment on whether it was investigating the bank. ING last year paid $900m to end a Dutch money-laundering probe.
Turkiye Garanti Bankasi A.S.
The Dutch unit of the Turkish bank processed €200m in transactions that came from two Lithuanian banks that were at the center of the Troika Laundromat, the Dutch media outlets reported.
It wasn’t immediately clear if it was being investigated.
