U.S. to hand over $50 million in assets to Estonia for assistance in Danske Bank investigation

The U.S. Department of Justice will transfer $50 million of confiscated assets to the Estonian authorities for assistance in the investigation of the money laundering case against Danske Bank. This is stated in a January 7 statement by the agency.

"Today's agreement to share $50 million in forfeited funds with Estonia recognizes Estonia's valuable contribution to the successful U.S. prosecution of Danske Bank, which pleaded guilty to providing false information to U.S. banks about its inadequate anti-money laundering measures to gain access to the U.S. financial system," said the head of the Justice Department's criminal division.

Estonian authorities said they will use the funds to counter financial and cross-border crimes, as well as to recover other stolen assets.

In December 2022, Danske Bank pleaded guilty to conspiring with customers of its Estonian branch to defraud U.S. banks and supervisors and gain access to the U.S. financial system. Danske Bank agreed to forfeit $2.06 billion.

About 1.5 trillion kroner ($230 billion) of foreign customers reportedly passed through the bank's Estonian branch between 2007 and 2015.

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Danske Bank is Denmark's largest commercial bank, founded in 1871. In November 2018, Danish authorities filed preliminary charges against Danske Bank in a case of possible money laundering in the organization's Estonian branch, including from Russia and CIS countries, between 2007 and 2015.

Because of the suspicions, the company in February 2019 announced that it would cease operations in Russia and the Baltic states for eight months.

In September of the same year, the former head of the Estonian branch of the organization Aivar Rehe was found dead, the man committed suicide. According to the media, it was during his leadership that €200 billion of suspicious origin passed through the branch.

In November 2019, the Bank of Russia revoked the banking license of Danske Bank JSC in St. Petersburg.