Danish authorities on Friday accused Finnish bank Nordea of failing to take action to prevent money laundering of more than $3.5 billion by Russian clients.
After years of investigation, the Danish Special Crimes Unit (NSK) has charged the bank with serious violations of the Danish Money Laundering Act between 2012 and 2015.
“Nordea failed to adequately investigate transactions by the bank’s Russian customers and ignored warnings about transactions to currency exchange offices in Copenhagen,” the NSK said.
The indictment covers transactions totaling just over 26 billion kronor ($3.7 billion). It was not clear when the case would go before a Copenhagen court.
Nordea regretted the outcome of the investigation and disputed the NSK’s assessment.
“The bank has admitted on several occasions in the past that there were shortcomings in its systems and processes for combating white-collar crime at the time,” Nordea said in a statement.
“Nordea apologizes for the shortcomings and expects a fine,” it added, noting that some of the cases are more than a decade old but are now being assessed under later legislation.
According to Nordea, the company has invested 11 billion kronor in combating money laundering and other crime since 2015.
The NSK said this was the most comprehensive indictment of money laundering offences in the banking sector in Denmark to date. However, no grounds were found to charge individuals in the case.