Danske Bank says US probing money laundering claims

‘Danske Bank said Thursday it was being investigated by the US Department of Justice over possible money laundering related to more than $200 billion mostly from Russia transferred through the Danish lender’s Estonian branch between 2007-2015.

In early August, the Danish state prosecutor’s office for serious economic and international crime said it too was probing allegations that money, mostly from Russia and other former Soviet republics, which had flowed through the Estonian branch had been laundered.

The allegations are linked to a fraud case exposed by Russian lawyer Sergei Magnitsky, who was jailed after he revealed the involvement of high-ranking Russian officials in stealing massive tax payments from several companies, including the investment fund Hermitage Capital.

Magnitsky died in 2009 aged 37 after being held in a Russian jail for a year, where he was denied medical care.’