US regulator opens investigation into money laundering in Swedbank

US regulators are questioning Swedbank on a series of money laundering scandals as part of a dramatic escalation of the Swedish bank's dirty money issues.

Last month, the Financial Services Department of the State of New York wrote to Swedbank to inform it of seven separate cases concerning the Swedish bank, according to a copy of the letter consulted by the Financial Times.

The letter, dated February 20, indicated that New York "was currently conducting several investigations" concerning Swedbank and its relationship with various other money laundering scandals. These include lenders such as Danske Bank, ABLV of Latvia, FBME of Cyprus and Ukio of Lithuania, as well as Mossack Fonseca, the law firm at the heart of the Panama Papers.

This letter marks the first sign of interest shown by a US regulator for Swedbank's shares after the announcement last month of a surveillance survey conducted jointly by Sweden and Estonia on the largest bank in the world. Baltic.

DFS New York refused to comment on the letter. Swedbank stated that the law prohibited him from commenting on communications with the DFS. But he added: "Swedbank cooperates fully and communicates clearly, honestly and in good faith with all relevant authorities."

The letter from New York was revealed after Swedish prosecutors attacked Swedbank on Wednesday, thus speeding up the pace of a bank money laundering investigation.

The Swedish Economic Crime Authority has announced that it has launched a transaction to investigate whether Swedbank breached insider trading rules by revealing to its major shareholders in February that a TV show about money laundering allegations against the bank would be broadcast.

Shares of Swedbank, already under pressure following a series of revelations of possible money laundering, fell 7.7% on Wednesday following the news of the raid.

Prosecutors told the Financial Times that they hoped to be able to provide more information, including on the possibility of expanding the investigation, later in the day, at the end of the raid.

Swedbank confirmed to have been the subject of a raid as part of a survey of inside information. "To date, no natural or legal person has been suspected of being suspected of a crime," he said, adding that the country would cooperate with the authorities.

Swedbank faces several new allegations including misleading US regulators and handling payments from former Ukrainian President Viktor Yanukovich to former Donald Trump campaign director Paul Manafort .

Swedish broadcaster SVT stated that Swedbank informed DFS in New York in 2016 when asked about the links it had with Mossack Fonseca, that it only identified Swedish and Norwegian customers with such links and did not suspect money laundering.

But SVT claimed that the leaked documents showed that more than 100 Mossack Fonseca-related companies were operating through Swedbank in the Baltic countries.

SVT also claimed that Vega Holding, a Yanukovich-related company that held an account with Swedbank, had sent $ 25 million to Inlord Sales, a shell company registered as a UK limited liability company.

Inlord reportedly sent USD 999,987 in 2012 to Mr Manafort. Swedbank declined to comment on the allegation, citing banking secrecy on the identity of its customers. Vega and Inlord could not be contacted immediately for comment.

The latest revelations came to add to the excerpts published by SVT during an internal investigation conducted at Swedbank, which revealed that 135 billion euros of money from non-residents at risk high, mainly Russians, had pbaded through the Estonian bank between 2008 and 2018.

This compares with the 200 billion euros of non-resident money pbading through Danske Bank between 2007 and 2015, a scandal that drove the Danish lender's actions to halve last year's value.

In addition, Danish legislators have agreed to give more power and manpower to the regulatory body of the under-armed country. The Danish Foreign Minister said the regulator would double the number of money-laundering workers to 24.