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CRIME

Thousands march for murdered French jogger

Shocked locals in eastern France joined the family and distraught friends of a murdered jogger for a silent march on Sunday that saw up to 10,000 people take to the streets of the town of Gray.

Published: 5 November 2017 17:39 CET
Thousands march for murdered French jogger
The relatives of Alexia Daval take part in a silent march gathering nearly 1000 people in Gray on Sunday. PHOTO: SEBASTIEN BOZON / AFP
Alexia Daval, a 29-year-old bank worker, disappeared last weekend after heading out for a run from her home in the rural Haute-Saone area to the northeast of France's Burgundy wine-growing area.
 
Her badly burned body was found in a nearby wood on Monday and an autopsy has determined she was strangled to death, but police have not yet made any arrests and the identity of her attacker remains unknown.
 
The seemingly random nature of the murder in a quiet town of around 5,000 people has led to national attention, with hundreds of joggers paying homage to her on Saturday by running in cities across France.
 
“With these sporting gestures, you are making Alexia into a strong symbol, one of the freedom for all women to enjoy running and to live,” her mother Isabelle Fouillot said through tears as she addressed the rally on Sunday.
 
Many of the 8,000 to 10,000 people who joined the march and listened to speeches from Daval's devastated husband and family brought white roses which were placed in front of her parents' tobacco shop in the town.

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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