The US Department of Justice (DoJ) has reportedly bolstered its investigation into Deutsche Bank’s involvement in last year’s Danske Bank money laundering scandal.
Talking to Reuters, a person familiar with the matter stated the DoJ has established a new line of inquiry into whether Deutsche Bank helped transport tainted money from Danske into the US. If this is the case, there could be large financial fines.
DoJ officials have also begun working with Frankfurt state prosecutors as well as those in Estonia, the sources claimed. Frankfurt prosecutors are looking into Deutsche’s role in processing payments for Danske Bank.
Danske Bank is reportedly cooperating with authorities in Estonia, Denmark, France and the US.
Last year, Danske Bank was found of money laundering after it was uncovered €200bn had flowed from Russia and other ex-soviet states through an Estonian branch, for nine years. Since then, actions have been taken to rectify the situation and stop it happening again.
Earlier in the year, the Danish government revealed plans to change how its financial regulator gets involved with the banks it supervises.
Deutsche Bank was brought into the money laundering investigation after claims were raised it had served as a correspondent bank for Danske Bank Estonia and helped transfer funds.
BaFin, Germany’s financial regulator expanded the mandate on the regulator earlier this year.
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