In the money laundering scandal surrounding danske bank, chief executive thomas borgen has announced his resignation. The bank failed to meet its responsibilities in the case, he explained. "I deeply regret this."
The public prosecutor’s office is investigating the money house because money worth several hundred million euros is alleged to have been laundered in an estonian branch. Danske bank is danemark’s largest credit institution.
Borgen has been at the helm of the bank since 2013. He will stay on until a successor is found, danske bank said. The board of directors expressed its regret at borgen’s resignation. However, it was the right decision.
Danske bank stated that the suspected transactions in estonia could not yet be accurately quantified. It’s about the years 2007 to 2015. In that time, the estonian branch had 10.Had had 000 customers from abroad who had moved around 200 billion euros. "A rough part of these 200 billion euros that flowed through the branch are suspicious transactions," said lawyer ole spiermann, who is leading the internal investigation. The authorities had to find out more.
The danish money house had taken over the estonian sampo bank in 2006. According to an investigation, suspicious activities had already come to light in 2007. Among other things, the bank had received corresponding information from the russian central bank.
"There were a number of warning lights that were not acted upon," admitted supervisory board chairman ole andersen. "The situation is much worse than we believed or could have imagined when we started our internal investigation."
Because it does not want to profit from potentially illegal transactions, danske bank will donate 1.5 billion danish kroner (about 200 million euros) to an independent foundation that fights international financial crime.