€200bn money-laundering scandal

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

Danske acquires Sampo Bank in Estonia in 2006

2007-15: As much as €200bn flow through 15,000 accounts of non-resident customers at Danske Bank Estonia

2013: Accounts at bank of UK-
and Scottish-registered limited liability partnerships, or LLPs – owned by companies based in Marshall Islands, British Virgin Islands, Belize, Hong Kong and Cyprus – peak at 1,100, overtaking Russian accounts

2013: Whistleblower raises alarm that Danske Bank Estonia has been laundering money since 2007

2018: Internal investigation by Danske finds that 177 accounts at its Estonian branch received payments from 21 LLPs tied to Laundromat scandal

Laundromat scandal: Russia’s Promsberbank buys large blocks of shares of Russian blue-chip stocks in Moscow using rubles. Shell companies simultaneously place mirror trades – selling same shares in same amounts in London. 

Proceeds sent to Estonia
           
Igor Putin
Promsberbank board member and cousin of Russian President Vladimir Putin

Alexander Grigoriev 
Promsberbank board member, linked to FSB spy agency




Source and pictures: Organized Crime and Corruption Reporting Project   © GRAPHIC NEWS