Swedbank as amended by the Financial Supervisory Authority

The Financial Supervisory Authority (FSA) in Sweden fined Swedbank $ 386 million for violating money laundering rules.

According to the investigation, approximately $ 5.8 billion was transferred between suspicious accounts from Swedbank and Danske Bank. The FSA has identified over 1,000 clients with Swedbank accounts, but with addresses in high risk jurisdictions, such as the British Virgin Islands and Belize. When examined more closely, it was found that companies registered in such jurisdictions published false financial statements. Other names found in the client list belonged to well-known high-risk individuals.

Swedbank had kept separate customer registries – an official and a real one, to facilitate money laundering and tax evasion.

The Swedish authority fined the bank with a record sum of 4 billion Swedish krona (the equivalent of $ 386 million).

Money laundering for organized crime

According to news.bitcoin.com FSA investigations have concluded that a number of bank-facilitated transactions have helped former President of Ukraine Viktor Yanukovych. He was convicted of treason in 2019 and with the help of the bank transferred millions of dollars to his personal accounts. Other transactions were linked to another Russian oligarch, who is associated with organized crime.

Investigations also in the USA

Swedbank is also under investigation in the US as it operates an office in New York and trades in US dollars. Following the FSA announcement, London-based independent law firm Clifford Chance has conducted a US investigation. They found that US subsidiaries handled 36.7 billion euros of transactions, all at high risk of money laundering.

The report also said that Swedbank was actively targeting high-risk customers in Russia and the former Soviet states. The bank may face even greater fines when US investigations are completed.