Nordea is currently on trial in Denmark in connection with a money laundering scandal from years ago. The Danish police announced in early July that they would take the case to court.
According to the news agency Bloomberg, Nordea has made a reservation worth EUR 95 million for lawsuits related to money laundering lawsuits. Danish lawyer and ex-prosecutor Hans Fogtdal however, in an interview with Bloomberg, he estimated that, in the worst case, Nordea could receive fines of up to 6.5 billion kroner (870 million euros) in connection with the case.
The difference would be explained by the fact that Nordea expects the judiciary to handle the case on the basis of Denmark’s old money laundering legislation, which is looser than the current one. According to Bloomberg, however, Danish authorities are expected to take the case to court under current money laundering legislation, where maximum sanctions are significantly higher than under the old law.
“We expect to receive fines, but we do not agree with the authorities’ assessment. Some of the cases are more than ten years ago, and now they are assessed based on the regulation that came into effect later,” Nordea communications commented on the matter to Bloomberg.
Russian money in the background
The background of the money laundering scandal is the suspicious transactions made by Nordea’s customers, which have been considered money laundering. According to the law, banks should detect and intervene in suspicious transactions of their customers.
The transactions now going to court took place between 2012 and 2015. According to Bloomberg, at the time, Nordea was handling suspicious transactions worth around three billion euros, which were mainly linked to Russian customers.
As a whole, the Danish authorities accuse Nordea of the fact that 26 billion kroner (about 3.5 billion euros) worth of suspicious transactions passed through the bank, the background checks of which Nordea neglected to check.
The case ending up in court is exceptional, as all other banks accused of violating money laundering laws in Denmark have settled their cases with the authorities outside the courtroom.