Bill Browder files a complaint for money laundering at Swedbank in Latvia

STOCKHOLM (Reuters) – Bill Browder, an investor who is campaigning to denounce corruption, has filed a lawsuit against Swedbank with the Latvian authorities, claiming that she was involved in a money laundering scandal in Russia.

Swedish and Baltic financial guards investigate Swedbank after its broadcaster, SVT, processed gross transactions of up to € 20 billion a year from non-resident high-risk customers, mainly Russian, via its Estonian branch between 2010 and 2010. 2016

The investigations follow a growing money-laundering scandal centered on Danske Bank, which said last year that its Estonian branch had been used to transfer € 230 billion of suspicious payments between 2007 and 2015.

Browder, once the largest foreign money manager in Russia, had already filed a complaint against Swedbank with the Swedish and Estonian authorities, alleging that the Swedish bank's accounts had been used to launder $ 176 million from 2006 to 2012.

Most of this amount, $ 117 million, went through the Estonian branch of Swedbank and the Browder complaint filed with the Latvian authorities, dated April 5 and consulted by Reuters on Wednesday, indicated that some $ 41 million had transited by Latvia.

"We are cooperating with the authorities of all our national markets to solve the current problems. However, we have no comments on the specific cases mentioned by Bill Browder, "said a Swedbank spokesperson in an e-mail response.

Browder's complaint, filed by his firm Hermitage Capital Management, called on the Latvian authorities to consider these charges in parallel with the ongoing expanded investigation into money laundering links with Russia.

The Latvian authorities did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

MAGNITSKY CASE

Browder insisted that the banks be held accountable for their ties to a money laundering and tax evasion case revealed by his former lawyer, Sergei Magnitsky, who died in a Russian prison in 2009.

He had already lodged a complaint against the rivals Swedbank, Nordea and Danske Bank, which are now being investigated in the United States, France, Denmark, Estonia and Great Britain.

Estonia included Browder Bank's complaint to Swedbank in its Danske Bank investigation, but Sweden dropped the investigation indicating that transfers between Swedish accounts were limited and the limitation period had expired.

Sweden, as well as the Estonian, Latvian and Lithuanian authorities, is expected to complete its investigation on Swedbank later this year, while a separate survey of the Swedish Economic Crime Agency on the behavior of the bank was expanded last month.

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