Danske Bank came under investigation after a probe into the €200 billion of payments made via its Estonian branch. (AFP pic)
NEW YORK: A US judge on Thursday accepted Danske Bank’s guilty plea to a bank fraud conspiracy charge and agreement to pay more than US$2 billion to end probes into anti-money laundering failures in a now-shuttered branch in Estonia.
US district judge Naomi Reice Buchwald accepted the plea at a hearing in Manhattan federal court, with Danske’s senior general counsel in attendance.
The US$2.06 billion payout by Denmark’s largest bank includes US$1.21 billion to the US government, US$178.6 million to the US Securities and Exchange Commission, and a criminal fine of US$672.3 million to Danish authorities, court records showed.
Danske came under investigation in multiple countries after disclosing in September 2018 that an internal probe had uncovered about €200 billion (US$210 billion) of payments made through the Estonian branch, with many payments appearing suspicious.
The US department of justice said Danske defrauded US banks about its customers in Estonia and anti-money laundering controls to enable high-risk customers who lived outside Estonia, including in neighbouring Russia, to access the US financial system.
Danske Bank Estonia processed US$160 billion on behalf of non-resident customers through US banks, the justice department said.
Martin Blessing, Danske’s chairman, last month said the bank apologised for and took “full responsibility for the unacceptable failures and misconduct of the past, which have no place at Danske Bank today.”
