Nearly 10 years after former employee Howard Wilkinson blew the whistle on Danske Bank, the U.S. Department of Justice (DOJ) and Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) have issued over $2 billion in penalties against the multinational banking and financial services corporation.
On December 13, Danske Bank pled guilty and agreed to settle charges by U.S. authorities that the bank defrauded U.S. banks and misled investors about its customer base and anti-money laundering controls.
Howard Wilkinson, who served as a manager at the bank’s Estonian branch, first reported concerns internally up his chain of command in 2014. By April of that year, Wilkinson resigned as his reports were ignored.
Then, on September 19, 2018, the news broke: failed internal controls had allowed $234 billion to be laundered through Danske. First moved out of Russia as rubles, the money was converted to dollars at Wilkinson’s branch where it was then moved to the U.S. through Bank of America, J.P. Morgan, and Deutsche Bank.
In admitting to this scheme, the bank also revealed that this was not news to all. In fact, a whistleblower, Wilkinson, had brought these very concerns to high-level management four years prior. Instead of acting then, Danske covered it up, continued to defraud banks and investors, and watched the whistleblower walk.
Now, Danske will pay up. While holding the bank accountable is a clear win, what comes next?
Russia.
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