Processing Your Payment

Please do not leave this page until complete. This can take a few moments.

January 31, 2017

Deutsche Bank fined for $10 billion Russian money-laundering scheme

The big fines keep coming for Deutsche Bank.

The giant German lender has now been hit with a $425 million penalty in the U.S. over a $10 billion Russian money-laundering scheme that involved its Moscow, New York and London branches.

It follows a $7.2 billion settlement Deutsche Bank reached with the U.S. Department of Justice last month over toxic mortgage assets and the $2.5 billion it agreed to pay in 2015 over interest rate manipulation.

The latest fine penalizes Deutsche Bank's failure to deal with a stock-trading scheme that enabled some of its Russian clients to improperly move large sums of money out of the country, according to the New York State Department of Financial Services.

"The bank missed numerous opportunities to detect, investigate and stop the scheme due to extensive compliance failures, allowing the scheme to continue for years," the department said in a statement.

Under the settlement, Deutsche Bank will have to bring in an independent monitor to review how it handles banking secrecy and anti-money laundering rules.

Deutsche Bank said in a statement that it already has the $425 million penalty covered in reserves it has set aside for legal bills.

Fears over whether the bank had enough money to pay its mounting fines from regulators escalated dramatically in September. The original U.S. Justice Department demand for a $14 billion settlement over the toxic mortgage assets prompted Deutsche Bank shares to plunge to their lowest level in over 20 years.

Deutsche Bank said that it's still cooperating with other investigations by regulators and law enforcement agencies into the Russian trades.

The German lender said in September 2015 that it was closing its investment banking business in Russia and would in future work with Russian corporate clients from abroad.

Sign up for Enews

0 Comments

Order a PDF