The Financial Times reported that the United States expand their probe into financial transactions of the Deutsche Bank’s branch in Moscow. The US authorities believe that the bank violated sanctions against Russia. The investigation was launched because the transactions allegedly involved the US national currency and a US banker. The newspaper said it was the first investigation into a major European bank which had presumably broken the sanctions regime.
In particular, the US authorities scrutinize the so-called “mirror trades”, in which Russian citizens bought securities in rubles in Deutsche Bank’s Moscow office and then sold the stocks for foreign currency, including the US dollar, through the bank’s office in London. The investigation estimates the volume of such transactions at $6 billion. At the moment, the US authorities examine the issue of the illegal removal of funds from Russia by its citizens as well as whether Deutsche Bank controlled the legitimacy of these transactions and provided information to regulators.
In May, Deutsche Bank started internal investigation into the alleged money laundering through the Russian branch.
