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Browder Says DNB Laundered $533,000 From Russia: DN

Browder Says DNB Laundered $533,000 From Russia: DN

(Bloomberg) -- U.S. investor Bill Browder has presented evidence that Norwegian lender DNB ASA helped transfer $533,000 in Russian cash through accounts in Estonia and Lithuania, according to a report in newspaper Dagens Naringsliv.

Browder sent a complaint to Norway’s economic crime unit in 2016 and met with the authority in 2017, according to the newspaper. The cash was transferred by eight Norwegian registered companies, DN said.

Browder Says DNB Laundered $533,000 From Russia: DN

Sven Arild Damslora, a prosecutor at the National Authority for Investigation and Prosecution of Economic and Environmental Crime, told the newspaper that the authority had investigated the transactions from 2007 to 2010 and decided not to pursue it further. The comment was confirmed by spokesman Mads Kvernen Kleppe.

DNB spokesman Even Westerveld said the bank shares the prosecutor’s view that the transactions weren’t suspicious, according to DN. He had no further comment to Bloomberg.

Browder, who is the co-founder and chief executive officer of Hermitage Capital, is behind a number of complaints to authorities in Estonia and Denmark regarding allegations of large-scale money laundering done through Danske Bank A/S. The lender is now the target of several criminal investigations, its CEO has resigned and several employees have been reported to the police.

To contact the reporter on this story: Jonas Bergman in Oslo at jbergman@bloomberg.net

To contact the editor responsible for this story: Tasneem Hanfi Brögger at tbrogger@bloomberg.net

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