Danish court fines Nordea bank €20.7 million over anti-money laundering violations
A Copenhagen court on 9 November fined the Nordic bank Nordea €20.7 million after a jury found it guilty of several breaches of anti-money laundering rules. The penalty is far below the €883 million sought by prosecutors.
A Danish court on 9 November ordered the Nordic bank Nordea to pay a fine of €20.7 million. Earlier, a jury had found the bank guilty of several breaches of anti-money laundering (AML) rules. The ruling was reported by the Association of Certified Anti-Money Laundering Specialists (ACAMS).
The fine is considerably smaller than the record €883 million demanded by the Danish National Special Crime Unit (NSK), which handles serious crime cases. The outcome indicates that most of the prosecution's demands were not met.
What the charges were about
The charges against the bank were brought over AML violations in July 2024. It was alleged that between 2012 and 2015 Nordea processed transactions worth €3.5 billion that may have been linked to the circulation of illegally obtained funds. The transactions were connected to currency exchange operations in Copenhagen, as well as to high-profile money laundering scandals in Russia and Azerbaijan.
The court's decision
The jury at the Copenhagen City Court acquitted the bank on most of the charges brought. The judges, for their part, dismissed another part of the case due to a lack of evidence. The bank was found guilty only of several AML violations, for which the €20.7 million fine was imposed.
