Involvement in a fraud-related scandal deals a blow to a reputation of any company or person. In many countries, if a civil servant or CEO is accused of swindling, a probe into allegations logically ends with a resignation. Moreover, a dishonest person loses even greater wealth than the one stolen.
A new scandal hit the headlines on November 20 that caused a 4% slump in shares of Deutsche Bank. Interestingly, the largest bank in Germany is not entangled directly in the alleged money laundering. The thing is that the lending institution acted as a correspondent bank for Danske in Estonia. Remarkably, suspicious activity was discovered by the Deutsche Bank personnel. The inner investigation revealed that the bank processed payments totaling $150 million from 2007 to 2015, channeled into the US, Howard Wilkinson, the head of Danske Bank's trading unit in Estonia, made a statement to a news agency.
Danske Bank has been spotted by the US financial watchdog. It suspects the lender of money laundering from Russia and ex-Soviet republics. The US is the interested party in the investigation because two American banks, J.P. Morgan and Bank of America, were also involved in handling US dollar payments for Danske Bank in Estonia. Besides, suspicious funds were siphoned into the US.
