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CRIME

Former French economy minister beaten and robbed at Paris home

A former French economy minister, Thierry Breton, was robbed and beaten in his Paris home along with his wife and live-in chauffeur, sources close to the police investigation told AFP on Tuesday.

Published: 24 July 2019 08:14 CEST
Former French economy minister beaten and robbed at Paris home
Photo: AFP

Two men wearing ski-masks and gloves and wielding handguns entered the property late on Saturday night through an unlocked window, waking the couple who were threatened and hit, two sources said, confirming a report first given by the newspaper Le Parisien.

The intruders then found the chauffeur, and locked all three victims in a bathroom before making off with what one of the sources said was a diamond bracelet worth €50,000 and several hundred euros in cash.

Breton, who was minister 2005-2007 and has been CEO of major French IT company Atos since 2009, suffered a wound to his head while his wife had a wrist hurt. Neither required hospitalisation.

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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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