Swedish bank suspected of money laundering in Estonia

TALLINN, Estonia (AP) — Swedish lender Swedbank says it’s been informed by Estonian authorities that its local subsidiary is suspected of money laundering in the Baltic country from 2014-2016. The Stockholm-based bank said in a statement Thursday that “the criminal investigation originates from the work of the Estonian Financial Supervisory Authority” that investigated operations of its Estonian subsidiary, Swedbank AS, in 2019. Swedbank has subsidiaries in Estonia, Latvia and Lithuania. In the past years, the Baltic countries have been exposed to several financial scandals, particularly in Estonia and Latvia. It has been confirmed there that clients from Russia and former Soviet states misused the local banking sectors for suspicious transactions and money laundering.