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CRIME

French cops bust gang of luxury car thieves

A two-country police operation has smashed an organised crime gang that stole high-end luxury cars in France and re-sold them for bargain-basement prices in Germany, Europe's judicial agency said Friday.

Published: 14 October 2016 16:56 CEST
French cops bust gang of luxury car thieves
Photo: AFP
French and German police raided 24 homes in the two countries on Thursday, leading to the arrest of 15 suspected gang members and the recovery of 11 luxury cars, said Eurojust, which helped to coordinate the operation.
   
The investigation into the theft of posh cars started in June, when police dismantled a Roma camp in northern France, the Hague-based agency said in a statement.
   
That probe revealed links to two other cases lodged at the district court in Le Havre and it was discovered “the cars were stolen in France and sold to customers in Germany for low prices.”
   
Seventeen cases were also under scrutiny by organised crime investigators in Lille, Eurojust said.
   
The car gang “broke into car owners' private homes to steal their car keys,” before making off with the vehicles, forging identity papers and driving them to Germany, the agency said.

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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