Deutsche Bank raided in Frankfurt over Danske Bank scandal
25 September 2019 - 16:52 Hans Seidenstücker and Patricia Uhlig and Tom Sims
The twin tower Deutsche Bank headquarters in Frankfurt, Germany. Picture: BLOOMBERG/KRISZTIAN BOCSI
Frankfurt — German authorities have raided Deutsche Bank’s Frankfurt headquarters and are searching for information related to Danske Bank and a money-laundering scandal, Frankfurt prosecutors said on Wednesday.
They are investigating whether Germany’s biggest lender facilitated money laundering and whether it failed to alert authorities about suspicious transactions quickly enough, the prosecutors added.
Danske Bank is under investigation in several countries, including the US, Denmark, Britain and Estonia, over suspicious payments totaling €200bn moved through its tiny Estonian branch. Deutsche Bank acted as a correspondent bank for Danske.
The search, which began on Tuesday and is ongoing, involves three prosecutors and nine agents from Germany’s federal criminal police.
Deutsche Bank said it was co-operating. “Deutsche Bank has comprehensively examined the facts of the matter and has voluntarily provided the requested documents as far as possible,” the bank said in a statement.
Prosecutors said the period in question is 2014 to 2018, and that there is a suspect who worked at the bank during that period.
Deutsche Bank had alerted authorities to 1.1-million suspicious transactions, prosecutors said. However, the bank registered a double-digit number of transactions, with a volume of €12.5m, either too late with authorities, or it should have blocked them from the start, prosecutors said.
