Through the branches of the Scandinavian banks Nordea and DNB, billions of euros were laundered in the Baltic countries, including through the accounts of Russian customers, Yle.
reports.
According to the portal with reference to the materials of the internal investigation in these banks, at least € 3.9 billion from dubious sources passed through two Scandinavian banks. “At the same time, millions of euros of shadow money flowed through the accounts of Russian customers,” the portal notes.
It is noted that the legalization of the income received illegally passed through the Nordea branches in Estonia, Latvia and Lithuania, as well as the Luminor bank created by Nordea in 2017 together with the Norwegian DNB. Through Nordea accounts, large amounts of money were transferred to companies related to large -scale international laundering. In October 2018 or a month before the start of the internal investigation in Luminor, Nordea said that the bank had no problems related to money laundering in the Baltic countries. However, the portal gives as an example the activities of the company of a citizen of Russia, which conducted € 947 million through Luminor from 2009 to 2018. More than € 30 million of this money went to derived companies to launder money.
According to Yle, more than € 200 million was transferred at the peak of this activity in 2014, while these companies did not have real business, did not have employees, and it did not pay taxes. At the same time, suspicions fell on one bank employee who could be an accomplice in money laundering.
In the Nordea, they refused to comment on Luminor, referring to the fact that Nordea sold its share of participation in this bank, and that the law does not allow it to publicly engage in the affairs of individual customers. Currently, Luminor is the third largest bank in the Baltic countries.
internal documentation of the Luminor was at the disposal of the Journalistic Investigations of the OCCRP consortium, the exploration of the media of Finland and the Baltic countries participated in the study of the documents.