It was Donald Trump's lender of last resort, Deutsche Bank. And now the sullied giant is mired in a Russian money laundering scheme aptly named the Global Laundromat.
Germany’s troubled Deutsche Bank faces fines, legal action and the possible prosecution of “senior management” because of its role in a $20bn Russian money-laundering scheme, a confidential internal report seen by the Guardian says.
The bank admits there is a high risk that regulators in the US and UK will take “significant disciplinary action” against it. Deutsche concedes that the scandal has hurt its “global brand” – and is likely to cause “client attrition”, loss of investor confidence and a decline in its market value.
Deutsche Bank was embroiled in a vast money-laundering operation, dubbed the Global Laundromat. Russian criminals with links to the Kremlin and the KGB used the scheme between 2010 and 2014 to move money into the western financial system. The cash involved could total $80bn, detectives believe.
...The affair is a further blow to Deutsche Banks’s ailing reputation. It comes amid police raids on its Frankfurt HQ over the Panama Papers, a plunging share price and talks over a possible merger with Germany’s Commerzbank. The raid last November came after German prosecutors alleged two bank employees helped clients launder money via offshore firms.
Deutsche is also under scrutiny in Washington over its financial dealings with Donald Trump. On 15 April, Democrats from the House intelligence and financial services committees issued a subpoena, demanding the bank provide documents about its lending to the president.
Over two decades, Trump borrowed more than $2bn from Deutsche. In 2008, he defaulted on a $45m loan repayment and sued the bank. Its private wealth division in New York subsequently loaned Trump a further $300m – a move that bemused insiders and which has yet to be fully explained.We're just a day away from the release of the Mueller report which should touch on Deutsche Bank's activities and, perhaps, Donald Trump.
3 comments:
Deutsche Bank or no , the big banks are almost equally corrupt.
Many, many years ago , a company I worked for was owed a considerable amount of monies by a large construction company .
The construction company declared bankruptcy and left the company I worked for with a considerable debt.
Not three months later the banks loaned the same companies owners millions of dollars to continue doing business!!
I really do not think that banks have any moral compass whatsoever.
Sadly financial misficience and corruption and climate change denial go hand in hand.
Mark Carney waved a warning flag; but so did the captain of the Titanic!
TB
Banks extol the divine merits of "commercial morality" when it comes to ordinary borrowers but spare themselves the indignity. Then again, the Rothschild's are credited with saying that, if you owe the Bank of England a hundred pounds, the bank owns you. If, however, you owe the Bank of England a million pounds, you owe the bank. Some things simply don't change, eh?
They teach courses on how to do a successful bankruptcy fraud at some of the better business schools. It's done for purposes of social and economic equity since the sons of the rich generally receive their instruction on the subject through home-schooling.
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