Danske's money laundering scandal is widening (AFP Photo/Jens Noergaard Larsen) |
London (AFP) - Britain's National Crime Agency is probing the activities of UK-based companies with alleged links to a money laundering scandal at Denmark's Danske Bank, it said Friday.
"The
NCA is aware of the use of UK registered companies in this case and has related
on-going operational activity," a spokeswoman said.
"The
threat posed by the use of UK company structures as a route for money
laundering is widely recognised and the NCA is working with partners across
government to restrict the ability of criminals to use them in this way."
Friday's
news came one day after Denmark's financial watchdog relaunched its money
laundering investigation into Danske, after the nation's largest lender said
"a large part" of transactions totalling 200 billion euros ($235
billion) at its Estonian branch were "suspicious".
The
Financial Times reported Friday, citing people with knowledge of the UK probe,
that the NCA's interest was on a UK-registered limited liability partnership or
LLP.
UK
corporate entities were the second biggest group, after Russians, among the
about 15,000 non-resident customers at the Estonian branch, it added.
Of the
accounts under investigation -- which Danske closed in 2015 -- 6,200 are
considered suspicious and most of them have been brought to the attention of
authorities.
The scandal
engulfing Danske cost the lender's chief executive his job this week as
investigators struggled to determine just how much dirty money transited
through its Estonian subsidiary.
Danske
itself said it could not be certain of the size of illegal sums involved.
More than
1.5 trillion Danish kroner (201 billion euros, $235 billion) transited through
the Estonian subsidiary between 2007 and 2015, according to an outside law firm
that carried out a probe for the bank.
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