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CRIME

Man behind French ‘heist of century’ hangs self

Marc Armando, the suspected mastermind behind one of France's most spectacular bank heists two decades ago, has committed suicide in prison, sources close to the investigation said Saturday.

Published: 4 May 2013 10:50 CEST
Man behind French 'heist of century' hangs self
Toulon. Photo: styeb

Armando, 56, was sentenced to 18 years in jail for his role in the 1992 robbery of the Bank of France in Toulon when raiders got away with 146 million francs (€22 million today), only around a tenth of which was ever recovered.

In April, he was arrested in the Netherlands under a European arrest warrant in connection with drug trafficking and was handed over to French authorities on Friday.

Armando was found hanged in his cell within hours of arriving at a detention centre in Marseille on Friday evening, sources said.

An investigation into the death is under way.

Armando was thought to have been the brains behind the Toulon bank robbery, known as "the heist of the century" in France.

He was due to appear before magistrates on Saturday in connection with a large seizure of cocaine in the port of Rotterdam. The illegal cargo was allegedly attached to a petrol tanker. 

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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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