Manager i investeringsfondet Hermitage Capital, Bill Browder, lægger sag an mod Danske Bank, både i Estland og Danmark, for hvidvaskning.

Hermitage Capital blev svindlet for 230 millioner dollar, det var Ruslands største udenlandske investeringsfond. Revisoren, som fortsatte for at finde ud af, hvem der havde taget pengene, Sergej Magnitskij, blev slået ihjel i fængslet.

Det var en så brutal handling, at Browder startede en kampagne for at hans død ikke skulle være forgæves. Det endte med en lov opkaldt efter ham i USA, som siger at russere, der begår alvorlige forbrydelser kan havne på en sortliste.

Advokaten som tilbød Trump jr. snavs om Hillary Clinton, Veselnitskaja, arbejdede for at få omstødt loven. Det samme gjorde Glenn Simpson, leder af konsulentselskabet Fusion GPS, som lavede en smædekampagne om Bill Browder.

Hvis Danske Bank har bidraget til at hvidvaske penge fra Hermitage Capital er det en meget alvorlig anklage.

The Estonian branch of Danske Bank was one of the main money-laundering nodes out of Russia, said Mr Browder on Thursday, adding that it was “one of the main conduits related to the fraud uncovered by Magnitsky.” Danske is under mounting pressure over the alleged money laundering. Mr Browder and local media claimed this week that the amount of transactions that flowed through the Estonian branch of Denmark’s biggest lender may have been as much as DKr53bn ($8.3bn), more than double previous estimates. (….)

Mr Browder said he had first brought the case to Estonian law enforcement officers in 2012, before alerting Danish authorities later to further fraud related to what Magnitsky discovered. “The regulators and law enforcement bodies in Denmark and Estonia have been asleep at the switch. And it’s one of the most important money laundering cases out of Russia in recent times,” he added.

 

Bill Browder to launch criminal complaint against Danske Bank