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CRIME

French cosmetics giant drops Pistorius adverts

French cosmetics firm Clarins said on Wednesday it was dropping an advertising campaign featuring South African track star Oscar Pistorius as he faces charges of murdering his girlfriend.

Published: 20 February 2013 13:03 CET

Pistorius, the 26-year-old double amputee Paralympic champion known as the "Blade Runner", had featured since 2011 in advertisements for the "A*Men" fragrance of the Thierry Mugler brand, part of the Clarins group.

"Out of respect and compassion for the families implicated in this tragedy, Thierry Mugler Perfumes has taken the decision to withdraw all its campaigns with Oscar Pistorius," the group said in a statement.

Several campaigns featuring Pistorius have been withdrawn since his arrest last week, with sports giant Nike and sunglasses maker Oakley also cutting ties with the athlete.

Pistorius rejects the charge of murder in the shooting of his 29-year-old girlfriend, model Reeva Steenkamp, on Valentine's Day.

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BANKING

Danish bank to pay millions to end French laundering probe

Denmark’s largest bank has agreed to pay a multi-million sum to end legal pursuits in France linked to alleged money laundering in its Estonian subsidiary that resulted in heavy US penalties

Published: 18 September 2024 16:27 CEST
Danish bank to pay millions to end French laundering probe

Danske Bank will pay €6.3million (47million kroner) to end French financial authorities’ investigation.

An independent auditor’s report published in 2018 alleged Danske Bank’s Estonian unit allegedly laundered some €200billion through 15,000 accounts from 2007 to 2015.

The payment was agreed on August 27th with France’s national financial crime prosecutors and validated by a court on Wednesday. The agreement does not involve any admission of guilt.

Danske last December pleaded guilty in the United States and paid a $2billion fine.

The bank last October set aside an amount roughly equal to its US fine in expectation of legal pursuits in several countries.

Probes are underway in Estonia, Denmark, and Britain.

France charged Danske in 2019 with organised money laundering, which it denied, saying it was unaware of its Estonian subsidiary’s activities.

Tracfin, the French finance ministry’s anti-money laundering unit, found suspect movements on two accounts linked to a Franco-Russian businesswoman who has since been handed a two-year suspended sentence.

At Wednesday’s hearing, Danske’s counsel Niels Heering said his institution was “happy to reach this accord which for us is a way to close this chapter”, adding that “cracking down on financial fraud remains a priority” for the bank.

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