Danish Bank Under Money-Laundering Probe in France
October 12 2017 - 12:43PM
Dow Jones News
By Simon Clark
A French judge is investigating Danske Bank A/S for allegedly
laundering stolen Russian money identified by deceased
whistleblower Sergei Magnitsky, according to a former hedge-fund
manager leading an international campaign for sanctions against
Russia.
Bill Browder said in an interview with The Wall Street Journal
that French judge Renaud van Ruyrnbeke is investigating Denmark's
biggest lender after he provided details of the lender's
involvement in laundering money from a tax fraud Mr. Magnitsky
exposed in Moscow.
Danske Bank said Wednesday that it was under investigation by
the French Tribunal de Grande Instance de Paris court "in relation
to suspicions of money laundering concerning transactions." The
bank said the transactions totaled about EUR15 million ($17.8
million) transferred to France by former customers of Danske Bank's
Estonian unit between 2008 and 2011.
In 2009, Mr. Magnitsky, a Russian lawyer who worked for Mr.
Browder, died in custody after exposing evidence allegedly showing
that police and criminals conspired to steal $230m in a tax fraud.
Mr. Browder said Danske Bank is the first lender to be formally
investigated for allegedly laundering funds identified by Mr.
Magnitsky.
"We are not presently in a position to say whether the amounts
came from illegal activities, and we do not wish to comment on the
specific case as long as it is being investigated," Flemming
Pristed, Danske Bank's general counsel, said in a statement. A
spokesman for the bank contacted by The Wall Street Journal
declined to give more details. A spokeswoman for the French judge
declined to comment.
In 2012, Mr. Browder successfully lobbied Congress to pass the
Magnitsky Act, which prevents anyone allegedly involved in Mr.
Magnitsky's death from entering the U.S. or using the American
banking system. He has campaigned for similar laws and
investigations across Europe. Mr. Browder said he contacted French
authorities in September 2013 with details of how Danske Bank's
unit in Estonia was involved in laundering the Russian money.
"The investigation is based on a criminal complaint that we
filed in September 2013 about proceeds from the crime that Sergei
Magnitsky exposed," Mr. Browder said in an interview. "We are going
after the people who benefited from the crime he exposed or who
facilitated the money laundering."
Mr. Browder managed billions of dollars of investments in Russia
until he pulled out of the country more than a decade ago. Born an
American citizen, he now carries a British passport and lives in
London, from where he manages his campaign.
Write to Simon Clark at simon.clark@wsj.com
(END) Dow Jones Newswires
October 12, 2017 12:28 ET (16:28 GMT)
Copyright (c) 2017 Dow Jones & Company, Inc.
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