Swedbank

2022

Swedbank confessed to money laundering in Estonia

On March 24, 2022, Swedbank announced that the Estonian Central Criminal Police reported that it suspected the Estonian branch of the Swedish bank of money laundering in the period of 2014-2016. The bank itself admitted that there were such episodes, and promised to cooperate with the investigation to quickly resolve the situation.

Swedbank is active in Baltic markets through subsidiaries in Estonia, Latvia and Lithuania. Swedbank serves tens of thousands of private and corporate clients in Estonia, Latvia and Lithuania through dozens of branches and is one of the three largest banks in these countries.

Swedbank admitted money laundering in Estonia

The Stockholm bank said in a statement that "the criminal investigation is based on the work of the Estonian financial supervision body," which investigated the activities of the bank's Estonian subsidiary, Swedbank AS, in 2019.

Earlier, the Estonian financial watchdog published a report on its findings regarding shortcomings in the work of Swedbank AS in combating money laundering. According to Swedbank, on March 24, 2022, the unit was informed by the Estonian authorities of suspicion of money laundering.

Swedbank AS will review and analyze the suspicions in detail and will cooperate with the authorities to resolve this issue, Swedbank said, adding that the maximum fine for a suspected crime is €16 million ($18 million).

Several financial scandals have already occurred in the Baltic countries, especially in Estonia and Latvia. In these countries, it was confirmed that customers from Russia of the former Soviet republics used local banking sectors to conduct suspicious transactions and money laundering.

The largest banking scandal in the region erupted in 2017-2018, when it became known that from 2007 to 2015, about €200 billion of suspicious cash transactions from Estonian, Russian, Latvian and other sources passed through the Estonian branch of the Danish Danske Bank.

In April 2022, Swedbank announced its decision to stop payments to and from Russia and Belarus. As noted in the bank, separate exceptions can be applied, "for example, Swedbank will continue to service payments that are directed to individual socio-social groups - we are talking about customers who receive payments for pensions or benefits from these countries."^[1]

Former Swedbank Executive Director Birgitt Bonnesen Fraud Charge

In January 2022, Swedish law enforcement agencies charged former Swedbank executive director Birgitt Bonnesen with fraud.

According to Thomas Langroth, chief investigator of the Swedish Bureau of Economic Crimes (Economic Crime Authority), Bonnesen, according to the investigation, spread false information that Swedbank had no problems with money laundering through the Estonian branch. In 2019, she was dismissed from her post, which she held for three years. Previously, Bonnesen led Swedbank operations in the Baltic countries.

Swedbank, as well as Danish bank Danske Bank, were at the center of the scandal after US financial authorities discovered that hundreds of billions of euros of dubious origin were spent through the Baltic branches of banks. The law firm Clifford Chance, which conducted an internal investigation commissioned by Swedbank, found that between 2014 and 2019, high-risk payments worth 37 billion euros passed through the bank. According to Swedbank's internal report, between 2008 and 2013, about 80 billion euros passed through bank accounts. Basically, these funds were withdrawn from Russia and the countries of the former USSR.

2021: Closing of the office in Estonian Kohtla-Järve

Since the end of May 2021, the city of Kohtla-Järve has become the largest city in Estonia in which there is not a single branch of the bank. At the end of May, the office finally closed the Swedbank branch.

2020

Penalty for dubious transactions for 20 billion euros

Swedbank was accused of dubious transactions worth 20 billion euros. Swedbank's client was former Minister for Open Government Affairs Mikhail Abyzov.

In March 2020, the bank fined the Financial Inspectorate Sweden for shortcomings in the fight against. money laundering The bank is accused of conducting dubious transactions through Estonia.

In Estonia and the United States, the investigation into the bank has not yet been completed. So, Swedbank transactions worth $4.8 million are being checked, which were allegedly  carried out in violation of the US sanctions regime.

Cancellation of bonuses for 170 executives due to the money laundering scandal from Russia

In February 2020, Swedbank's board of directors decided not to pay bonuses to 170 Swedbank executives due to the Russian money laundering scandal that happened in 2019.

Swedbank fell into a deep crisis when the Swedish television company SVT revealed dubious transactions in relation to accounts in the Baltic states Swedbank. Through them, $155 billion were washed.

Further, part of the staff, including CEO, was fired. The bank, according to Swedish media, spent and pledged a total of $200 million for internal investigations. The bank can supposedly expect fines worth billions of dollars.

Swedbank spokesman Unni Jerndal said worldwide that the money laundering story undermined confidence in the bank.