Denmark-Estonia relations: Danske Bank Money Laundering Probe Expands

The Estonian Prosecutor's Office confirmed on Thursday it expanded the investigation into money laundering through Danske bank’s Estonian branch from two to more than 10 cases that are involving suspicious transactions worth US$ 2 billion.

Prosecutors were previously looking into suspect money flows worth $300 million relating to two separate cases.

After media broke the story about extensive money laundering in the Estonian branch of Denmark’s biggest bank, Danske launched an investigation into 15,000 of its customers and 200 billion euro (US$222 billion) worth of transactions.

In 2018, the bank admitted that it 6,200 customers had hit the most risk indicators and that most of them have been found to be suspicious. Most of the customers were from Russia and other post-Soviet countries.

The bank closed its branches in the Baltics and promised to cooperate with investigators. The scandal also triggered worldwide probes and lawsuits.

Read more: Estonia: Danske Bank Money Laundering Probe Expands

The Netherlands - Money laundering: major Dutch banks team up to fight money laundering

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https://nltimes.nl/2019/09/13/dutch-banks-want-team-fight-money-laundering

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THE NETHERLANDS - MONEY LAUNDERING: Dutch Government bans cash payments over EU 3,000

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Money Laundering: EU tables new rules to counter money laundering- by Irene Kostaki

The European Commission on December 21 proposed the tightening of controls on cash and precious metals that are transferred to the bloc from non-EU countries.

The proposal is part of the EU’s action plan to cut financing to Islamic State. It comes after the December 19 attack in Berlin in which 12 people were killed when a truck ploughed into a crowd at a busy Christmas market.

Under the new proposals, customs officials in EU member states will be given the powers of checking freight payments via cards and prepaid/debit cards.

This means that anyone carrying more than €10,000 in cash will be required to declare this at customs when entering the EU.

EU officials also said some of the recent attacks in Europe were carried out with limited funds, sometimes sent from outside the EU. These amounts probably originated from criminal activities, such as drug dealing, according to Vera Jourova, the EU Commissioner for Justice.

She presented the Commission’s proposal on freezing terrorists’ financial resources and on confiscating assets – even from those who are only suspected of being connected to criminals.

“There are a lot of new ways of transferring money and not all of those are covered in the EU-US scheme,” Julian King, the Commissioner for the Security Union, told a news conference in Brussels. He also said the Commission will study the impact of a possible EU programme and “report back by next summer”.

Read more: EU tables new rules to counter money laundering

Britain: Cracking down on corruption: world leaders meet in London - by Catherine Hardy

The Channel island of Jersey is only 9 kilometres wide and 15 kilometres long. However, it manages an estimated 1.6 trillion euros of international wealth.

The authoritiesthere are also watching today’s events in London closely.

While the island has historically low tax, it is not a haven, according to officials like Jersey’s Assistant Chief Minister, Senator Philip Ozouf:

“Every individual that wants to open a bank account in Jersey, that information is going to be transferred automatically on an annual basis to their home tax authority, so there’s no hiding place. So it cannot be said that Jersey is a tax haven. This is a label which needs to be consigned to the history books.”

Jersey maintains a private register revealing the beneficiaries of each company.

However, it has refused calls from leading economists like Richard Murphy, to sign up to a public one.

He is one of hundreds of leading economists who are urging the UK government to persuade its Crown Dependencies and Overseas Territories like Jersey to sign up to one.

“A tax haven exists to create legislation for the benefit of people who aren’t there and provides a veil of secrecy to make sure those people can’t be identified to be doing so. That’s how we now define a tax haven.
This is what Jersey is doing – a low tax rate for the benefit of people who are not really in that island to undermine the tax system of another country.”

Read more: Cracking down on corruption: world leaders meet in London | euronews, world news