Danish prosecutors have charged a former chief executive of Danske Bank for his involvement in one of the world’s biggest money-laundering scandals, Danish newspaper Borsen reported.
The home of Thomas Borgen was raided by police and prosecutors on March 12, his lawyer Peter Schradieck was quoted as saying on Tuesday.
Borgen is the first person to be charged in a case that involves suspicious transactions of some 200 billion euros that passed through Danske Bank’s Estonian branch between 2007 and 2015.
Danish regulators say the transactions involved nonresident accounts and that up to 35 percent of them were Russian. The second-largest number of nonresident accounts were from Britain.
Borgen, who had been in charge of Danske Bank’s international operations between 2009 and 2012, resigned in September after an investigation uncovered the scale of the suspicious payments.
Denmark’s largest bank is being investigated in several other countries, including the United States, where it could face major fines.
The country’s state prosecutor filed preliminary charges against the bank itself in November for alleged violations of the country’s anti-money-laundering laws. The scandal has spread to several European countries including Sweden, where Swedbank has dismissed its chief executive over allegations its Baltic accounts were used to launder money.
In February, Danske shut down its banking operations in the Baltics and in Russia after Estonia ordered it to close the branch at the center of the money laundering scandals.
