Deutsche Bank ends up with fines of nearly $630m for alleged money laundering

Deutsche Bank has had fines totalling nearly $630m slapped on it by regulators in the United States and Britain for an “inadequate AML [anti-money laundering] control framework” that enabled about $10m to be illicitly taken out of Russia.

Britain’s Financial Conduct Authority (FCA) said on January 31 that it had fined Deutsche Bank 163m pounds ($203.7m). “Deutsche Bank was used by unidentified customers to transfer approximately $10 billion, of unknown origin, from Russia to offshore bank accounts in a manner that is highly suggestive of financial crime,” the FCA said in a statement.

Most of the transfers were done via “mirror trades”, where stocks were bought in roubles and sold at the same time in US dollars, according to Reuters.

On January 30, the New York Department of Financial Services said it had fined Deutsche Bank $425m, confirming that about $10bn had been smuggled out of Russia through the lender.

New York financial services superintendent Maria Vullo said, however:  “We … appreciate the bank’s forthrightness and timeliness in conducting its internal review and cooperation in our investigation.”

Sorry, comments are closed for this post.