Danske Bank has pleaded guilty to bank fraud on Tuesday and agreed to pay $2 billion as part of an agreement with the United States following an investigation into billions of dollars that flowed through Estonia from Russia and elsewhere, the US Justice Department announced on Tuesday.

The accord with the Justice Department marks the first time the United States has taken action against the bank, following a lengthy investigation into its conduct across multiple countries including Great Britain, Denmark and Estonia.

“Danske Bank lied to U.S. banks about its deficient anti-money laundering systems, inadequate transaction monitoring capabilities, and its high-risk, offshore customer base in order to gain unlawful access to the U.S. financial system,” said Assistant Attorney General Kenneth A. Polite, Jr. of the Justice Department’s Criminal Division. “Today, Danske Bank accepted responsibility for defrauding U.S. financial institutions and funneling billions of dollars in suspicious and criminal transactions through the United States. As part of its guilty plea, Danske Bank will forfeit over $2 billion and implement significant changes to its compliance program and AML controls".

Additionally, the SEC announced a separate settlement with Danske Bank today in connection with a related, parallel proceeding. Under the terms of that resolution, Danske Bank agreed to pay approximately $413 million, which includes a civil monetary penalty of $178.6 million, as well as disgorgement that will be credited to any such payments made to the Danish authorities or the department in connection with Danske Bank’s guilty plea.

Prosecutors said the bank's Estonia office attracted clients by promising them they could transfer large amounts of money with little oversight.

The Justice Department said the bank's employees also worked to hide the nature of the illicit transactions by using shell companies to obscure ownership of the funds.

In doing so, Russian and other high-risk clients were able to gain access to U.S. banks, which collectively processed $160 billion on their behalf.

The Justice Department said Danske Bank was aware of illicit transactions by at least February 2014, after they came to light through internal audits as well as from a whistleblower and through information from regulators.

The bank was also aware that its Estonian arm's anti-money laundering program was not up to its standards, prosecutors said.

The money-laundering scandal at Danske Bank has plagued the company for about five years, with the bank saying in October it was setting aside $1.9 billion to resolve probes by the Justice Department, SEC and the Danish Special Crime Unit.

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