The New York State Department of Financial Services (DFS) has announced that Deutsche Bank will pay $150 million in penalties for grave compliance failures concerning its banking relationships with Jeffrey Epstein, Danske Bank Estonia and FBME Bank.
Firstly, Deutsche Bank failed to monitor the transactions conducted on behalf of Jeffrey Epstein, a registered sex offender, even though information about his criminal misconducts was publicly available. Due to this negligence, Deutsche Bank enabled several suspicious transactions worth millions of dollars. These included payments to Epstein’s alleged co-conspirators in his sexual misconduct, Russian models and several women with Eastern European surnames, among other suspicious activities.
Secondly, since the money-laundering scandal of Danske Bank Estonia broke out, authorities had repeatedly asked Deutsche Bank to take a note of Danske Bank’s failings. Instead, Deutsche Bank allowed Danske Estonia to conduct suspicious transactions worth billions of dollars through New York-based Deutsche Bank accounts. Similarly, Deutsche Bank also failed to act on suspicious activities associated with its relationship with FBME Bank.