Estonia, EU – Baltic States, Financial Services, Legislation

According to information available to date, Estonia may have been used as a country of transit in the money laundering scheme. Public prosecutor Sigrid Nurm said that the prosecutor's office engages both in international and domestic cooperation in the investigation of money laundering at Swedbank. 

"Investigating institutions have to date worked with mass data, forwarded requests for legal assistance to other countries and engaged in close cooperation with the FSA," Nurm said.

Nobody has been declared suspect in a criminal offense in the present stage of the investigation. 

Swedish public broadcaster SVT reported in February that Swedbank customers had been able to funnel at least 40 bn kronor or 3.8 bn euros between Swedbank and Danske Bank in Estonia.

The Estonian Financial Supervision Authority decided on Monday to open a misdemeanor case with regard to Swedbank AS, Estonian subsidiary of the Swedish banking group of the same name.

The decision was taken after some evidence of a misdemeanor appeared during a financial supervisory investigation into compliance with anti-money laundering rules that was launched earlier this year. In this separate misdemeanor proceeding, investigators are looking at whether the acts comprise necessary elements of an offense, whether they are unlawful and whether the person is guilty of commission of the offense, whether there are circumstances to end the investigation without further proceeding and other important aspects, the FSA said in a press release.

The misdemeanor procedure is about sanctioning, while financial supervisory proceedings oblige a person in the interests of financial stability and transparency. Financial supervisory investigation with regard Swedbank AS will also continue.

The FSA is working extensively in the supervisory case with Swedish and other Baltic authorities, and the supervisory authorities are coordinating their activities and sharing information and assessments. The FSA does not conduct criminal proceedings and nor is it authorized to investigate criminal cases.

The FSA plans to communicate the results of the investigations at the beginning of next year at the earliest.

Swedbank Estonia said on Tuesday that considering the ongoing investigations concerning Swedbank, the initiation of a sanction process by the Swedish and Estonian financial supervision authorities is a logical course of events.