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CRIME

Danish court jails woman in 4 billion euro money laundering case

A Danish court on Thursday sentenced a woman to jail for attempting to launder nearly four billion euros, the largest case of money-laundering in the Nordic country's history.

danske bank
Major Danish banks, including Danske Bank, Jyske Bank, and Denmark's National Bank, faced cyberattacks that shut down their websites. Photo: Jacob Gronholt-Pedersen/Reuters/Ritzau Scanpix

The 49-year-old Lithuanian woman had confessed to the crime in police interviews, Denmark’s Prosecution Service said in a statement.

Between December 2008 and March 2016, nearly four billion euros were funnelled through a series of companies, all of which had accounts in Danske Bank’s Estonian branch.

“This is the largest amount we have seen in a money laundering case brought before a court in Denmark,” special prosecutor Lisette Jørgensen said in a statement.

“The woman had a role in a large money laundering complex built around 40 Danish limited partnerships,” Jorgensen added.

Using her expertise, she “made it possible for the companies to move money around in order to disguise their illegal origins”, the prosecutor said.

According to the prosecution service, two other defendants in the case have also been linked to the companies. 

One is a 49-year-old former Russian citizen who is in custody after she was extradited from the UK in December 2021, and the other is a 56-year-old Lithuanian man living in Denmark.

The Lithuanian woman sentenced Thursday was given three years and 11 months in prison for laundering millions in a separate case. 

Together with Thursday’s verdict, her total sentence is eight years in jail.

Prosecutors also said the case is connected a larger scandal involving Danske Bank, Denmark’s largest.

The bank is still recovering after it became embroiled in criminal investigations in several countries over some 200 billion euros in transfers that passed through its Estonian branch between 2007 and 2015, involving some 15,000 foreign clients, many Russian.

READ ALSO: Danish police drop money laundering case against Danske Bank directors

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CRIME

Five residents at Denmark’s Kærshovedgård expulsion centre convicted in drugs case

Five residents of Denmark’s Kærshovedgård Departure Centre have been convicted on serious drugs charges.

Five residents at Denmark’s Kærshovedgård expulsion centre convicted in drugs case

Four men and one woman resident from Kærshovedgård were found guilty in a major drugs case at Herning District Court on Thursday.

The men were each sentenced to eight years in prison, while the woman received a five-year sentence, regional media TV Midtvest reported.

Court proceedings in the extensive case have been ongoing since January, with more court days required than initially planned.

Police used wiretaps and other methods to gather evidence in the case, according to TV Midtvest.

Central and West Jutland Police announced last summer that more than half a million kroner in cash had been seized during the arrests.

Located 13 kilometres from Ikast in Jutland, the Kærshovedgård facility is one of two deportation centres in Denmark used to house rejected male and female asylum seekers who have not agreed to voluntary return, as well as persons with so-called ‘tolerated stay’ (tålt ophold) status.

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The residents do not have permission to reside in Denmark but many cannot be forcibly deported because Denmark has no diplomatic relations or return agreements with their home countries.

Kærshovedgård houses people who have not committed crimes but have no legal right to stay in Denmark, for example due to a rejected asylum claim; as well as foreign nationals with criminal records who have served their sentences but are awaiting deportation.

It first became prominent in the mid-2010s, when it received criticism for imposing conditions that could lead to mental illnesses in residents.

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