Thread by @DrDenaGrayson

THREAD: in 2013, Denmark’s biggest bank – Danske – previously accused of #MoneyLaundering, shut down 20 #Russian🇷🇺accounts used to funnel cash through British companies by *members of Putin’s FAMILY & the FSB*‼️ 1/

theguardian.com/world/2018/feb…

In 2013, a whistleblower alleged that Danske's Estonian branch was engaged in "suspicious & possibly illegal activity" involving the LAUNDERING of money for Putin, his family & the FSB, but the whistleblower's report remained secret until being leaked now‼️ 2/

Last September, Danske's SAME Estonian branch was busted for laundering $2.9 billion of mostly Azerbaijani money, channeled through opaque British companies.🤨 3/

In the 2013 #Russian🇷🇺scam, Danske discovered that a UK company, Lantana Trade, filed “false accounts” to Companies House (UK regulator)👉🏼Lantana claimed to be “dormant” w/very limited financial turnover, yet held HUGE deposits & made € MILLIONS of daily transactions.🙄 4/

The ultimate owners of Lantana & related companies were #Russians. But their identities were HIDDEN behind a series of offshore management firms based in the Marshall Islands and the #Seychelles.🤔

Gee, this sounds familiarly SHADY‼️🙄 5/

🔥According to the whistleblower, #Danske failed to establish who was behind the nesting dolls of #Lantana – although Danske was more than happy to take their RUBLES. The whistleblower added, “apparently it was discovered that they included the #Putin family and the FSB”‼️6/

Details of the 2013 whistleblower report were sent to #Estonia’s financial intelligence unit & passed to #Danske’s top management, yet Danske didn't begin a full inquiry *until FOUR YEARS LATER in 2017* and did NOT inform either the UK or Companies House.🤬 7/

This story highlights the use of the lightly regulated British corporate landscape to move large sums of money around, beyond the purview of regulators & tax authorities. In this case the perps appear to have been connected w/the Kremlin‼️ 8/

Baltic countries = major entry point for #Russian🇷🇺cash into Western banks. Last week, US Treasury accused #Latvia’s 3rd biggest bank of “institutionalised money laundering”, then Latvia's central bank chief Ilmārs Rimšēvičs was arrested for taking a €100,000-plus bribe.🤨 9/

#Danske’s Estonian managers grew "concerned" after a tip-off from *inside #Russia* that #Lantana was closely linked to Russian bank Promsberbank👉🏼senior managers represented Lantana.🤔 10/

Igor Putin (Vlad's cousin) was on Promsberbank’s board. Major shareholders were Alexander Grigoriev (FSB ties) and Alexei Kulikov (arrested in 2016 & charged with “large-scale fraud”). Promsberbank COLLAPSED in 2016 after 3bn rubles (about £38m) had "disappeared."🤣😂 11/

These SAME shady #Russians🇷🇺were closely connected w/the Deutsche Bank scandal. Deutsche Bank was BUSTED for allowing its Moscow division to run a $10 billion “mirror trades” scam that converted rubles into dollars.🤨 12/

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REMINDER: Deutsche Bank – the main lender to Trump – paid $630 million in US-UK fines for LAUNDERING #Russian🇷🇺cash. 13/

🔥WHOA🔥

At a meeting in #Danske’s Estonia office, two #Russians refused to identify themselves & THREATENED bank staff: “Do you really feel you can walk home safely at night?” And added: “The bank will sink after this.”😱 14/

International financial investigator: "The activity in the account was...indicative of #MoneyLaundering...many large transactions & all done in 1 or 2 days. The money didn’t linger...a small branch of a very big bank has an account moving TENS OF MILLIONS EVERY DAY.”🤨 15/

The scale of the #Russian🇷🇺scam is unknown, but could total btwn $2.2-3.3 BILLION, based on a pattern of $10m-plus laundered every day.

“This is such an excellent way to move large sums of money that I am sure is still occurring. It is a very difficult trail to follow.”😳 16/

Grigoriev allegedly masterminded another HUGE #MoneyLaundering scam👉🏼Global Laundromat. Btwn 2010-15, >$20 BILLION was laundered from Moscow into western banks via Moldova & Latvia. Igor Putin sat on the board of a bank involved in the fraud, the #Russian Land Bank (RZB).🤨 17/

#Danske had a “near total process failure," didn't ID Lantana’s true owners or take action on “suspicious payments made just under compliance control limits”. Danske “breached numerous regulatory requirements, behaved unethically & may have committed a criminal offense.”🙄 18/

The fact that this DAMNING whistleblower report *from 2013* just surfaced now is NOT coincidence‼️

The US & allies are FOLLOWING THE MONEY (or in this case, RUBLES) all the way to Moscow🇷🇺.

As I, @ericgarland and others keep saying: MANY crooks are getting BUSTED.😎

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