Many European banks are involved in money laundering and tax evasion scandals. However, one institution has already been the focus of several investigations: Deutsche Bank.
According to a database analysis of the so-called offshore leaks and Panama papers by the German Federal Criminal Police Office, Deutsche Bank helped clients set up offshore companies in tax havens and transferred criminal money without reporting money laundering suspicions. The investigations against Deutsche Bank have been ongoing since August 2018 and cover a period from 2013 to 2018. Only in September 2018, the German financial supervisory authority Bafin ordered preventive measures against money laundering and terrorist financing and appointed a special representative to remedy shortcomings in the bank’s internal control mechanisms – an unprecedented occurrence in the German financial sector. Most recently, Deutsche Bank had also been mentioned in connection with the money laundering scandal at Danske Bank. Four fifths of the suspicious 200 billion euros of the Estonian branch of Danske Bank are said to have flowed through Deutsche Bank.
On Monday, February 4 at 6.30 p.m., Stephan Wilken, Deutsche Bank’s Group Anti Money Laundering Officer, will answer the questions of the members of the TAX3 special committee in the European Parliament. Jens Fürhoff, responsible for money laundering at Bafin, will also attend the hearing. The hearing in Brussels will be available live via webstream and subsequently as a recording on the Parliament’s website: http://www.europarl.europa.eu/committees/en/tax3/home.html
If you have any concrete (!) questions that we should ask the responsible persons at Deutsche Bank or Bafin, please do not hesitate to send them to us by Wednesday evening: sven.giegold@ep.europa.eu
With European green greetings,
Sven Giegold