Denmark officially brought charges to Nordea in the country’s biggest money laundering case to date, stating the bank violated the Danish anti-money laundering act several times between 2012 and 2015.
Danish police and the Special Crime Unit (NSK) accuses the Nordic regions’ largest bank of not sufficiently investigating transactions by Russian customers, as well as disregarding warnings about transactions involving currency exchange offices in Copenhagen.
“As a result, a good 26 billion crowns have flowed into the bank despite the fact that there could be suspicions the money was linked to money laundering," the NSK stated, who has been investigating Nordea's anti-money laundering controls since 2016.
And while Nordea has made provisions for potential fines, they have expressed disagreement over the police’s legal assessment. The bank’s chief legal counsel Anders Holkmann Olsen said in a statement: "We are disappointed that this affair has been brought in front of the courts. Nordea has recognised on several occasions that at the time there were lapses in our systems and processes for fighting financial crime."