“The investigation refers to events that took place years ago at Danske Bank Estonia. The investigation relates to transactions in the amount of around EUR 15 million, which were transferred to France during 2008-2011 by former customers at Danske Bank Estonia,” says Flemming Pristed, Group General Counsel. “The customers were part of the portfolio of foreign customers at Danske Bank Estonia (non-resident customers), and we have since then terminated all accounts in that portfolio. We are not presently in a position to say whether the amounts came from illegal activities, and we do not wish to comment on the specific case as long as it is being investigated.”
The transactions are included in Danske Bank’s ongoing investigation of the situation at its Estonian branch, as described in the press release dated 21 September 2017. The investigation covers customers and transactions in the period from 2007 to 2015. Naturally, we will cooperate with the relevant authorities in the investigation and will report any findings.
This is the notification in English:
“We have notified the legal entity Danske Bank A/S that it is placed under investigation for the following facts:
Organised laundering of tax evasion and frauds: For having assisted in France and abroad (in particular in Estonia) from 1 January 2008 until 22 July 2011 (date of [company name] account closure) in multiple transactions consisting in investing, hiding, or converting the direct or indirect proceeds of crimes by opening pass-through accounts in order to receive money from organised fraud and tax evasion, and by allowing these accounts to be debited with multiple transactions carried out in the context of set-off mechanisms without any economic justification, in the amount of about 15 million EURO [14 customer names left out], the facts having been committed in an organised manner and through multiple agents, these transactions having no other aim but to hide the final destination of the defrauded funds and to benefit from them abroad after laundering of the funds in opaque circuits.
Facts punished by articles 324-1, 324-2, 324-3, 324-4, 324-7, 324-8 and 324-9 of the Criminal Code.”
Danske Bank A/S