Swedbank, plagued by money laundering issues, may also have violated US sanctions against Russia. According to Swedish broadcaster SVT, US authorities are therefore currently investigating the Swedish financial group.
It would be money flows through the Baltic branch of Svedbank between the Russian arms maker Kalashnikov and Kalashnikov USA, a Florida company that makes weapons based on the Russian design. The transactions took place after the United States imposed sanctions on Russia in connection with the annexation of Crimea in 2014, SVT has discovered.
Swedbank CEO Jens Henriksson says in an interview for Swedish television that the bank has not yet received any signals that the sanctions have been broken. He also said that the new information from SVT will be included in the bank’s internal investigation.
SVT previously linked Swedbank to a major money laundering scandal. The issue has already cost several top people at the bank and may result in fines. Swedbank is suspected of processing tens of billions of euros in suspicious cash flows, mostly from former Soviet countries.
Maurice Esma, a co-founder of EconomicInform is a freelance journalist with the expertise in international finance and corporate rights. The author can be reached by email maurice.eisma@economicinform.com