Deutsche Bank Involved In DOJ Probe of Russian Money Laundering

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Can anyone keep track of the fines at Deutsche Bank? Is it time to pull the plug on the criminals at Deutsche Bank?

According to Bloomberg Business, the U.S. Department of Justice is investigating the German bank for yet another serious violation of U.S. law, this time aiding and abetting Russian oligarchs with a complex money laundering scheme. How many strikes does this serial scofflaw get before it sees some real punishment and not a slap on the wrist? In this author’s opinion, it’s time to get serious and pull the incorrigible,  morally bankrupt bank’s license to do any business in the U.S. Either that or fire all senior management and break up the criminal enterprise into half a dozen smaller, carefully supervised entities.

More on DOJ investigation of Russian money laundering by Deutsche Bank

The DOJ’s new criminal investigation of Deutsche Bank involves so-called mirror trades, according to the Bloomberg sources with knowledge of the matter. These traders apparently permitted Russian clients to transfer money abroad without properly alerting authorities.

This additional investigation adds further fuel to the accusations of a culture of criminality at Germany’s largest bank, which has seen multiple investigations, resignations of top execs and a leaked documents in which regulators claimed senior bank officials knew about traders’ illegal efforts at market manipulation.

The current investigation means there are at least three ongoing U.S. criminal investigations against the megabank, including separate investigations of collusion to rig benchmark foreign-exchange rates and violations of U.S. sanctions laws against various countries including Iran. Of note, the DOJ is also probing Deutsche  Bank’s mortgage securities operations.

The bank agreed to a $2.5 billion settlement this spring with regulators in the UK and the U.S. for manipulating the London interbank offered rate and related FX benchmarks. A  division of the bank based in the UK also pled guilty to a criminal wire-fraud charge.

A June 5th Bloomberg article noted that Deutsche Bank had undertaken an internal probe into $6 billion in “mirror trades” between Moscow and London to see if the transactions were related to money laundering by Russian clients. According to the report, the bank’s investigation was taking a closer look at trades spanning from mid-2011 through the first couple of months of 2015.

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