A brief introduction to our forthcoming series of podcasts looking primarily at the Danske Bank scandal and other major European laundromats as wll as the background and the wider implications.

Episode 1 - The Background

Episode 2 of "The Dark Money Files" in which we examine in detail, the beginnings of the Danse Bank, Estonia money laundering activities.

Episode 2 - The Launching of a Laundromat

If you really want to understand why this was such a noteworthy failure of financial crime controls, this is the episode you really must listen to.

We take the audience through the many different elements that constitute "suspicious activity" and then explain those elements that are observed within the bank statements from Danske.

Episode 3 - The Billion Dollar Shuffle

In this episode we look at a specific set of transactions within Danske Estonia - those emanating from accounts which are also located there. We do so because, of all the transactions that the bank handled, these are the ones it ought to have known most about as it would have (or should have) held "Know Your Customer" information on them. As we will see, it didn't appear to have helped them spot highly suspicious connections between supposedly unconnected accounts.

Episode 4 - Stacking the Deck

In this episode we look in some detail at payments made from Danske Estonia to three specific countries - Spain, UK, and Latvia. The outcome will surprise some and intrigue all.

It's a more complex episode because that's the way that Dark Money Launderers work and introduces, for the first time, direct references to the Magnitsky affair.

It also demonstrates that, if you look carefully enough, all of these payments, entities and schemes are connected.

Episode 5 - The Billion Dollar Deal

In this episode we begin to look at the report, commissioned by Dankse Bank, which finally brought to light the full extent of what went wrong in Estonia.

Part One explains the background to the report, the terms of reference, and the definitions of what constituted "suspicious" both in terms of customers, accounts, transactions and people associated with the bank.

Episode 6 - The Suspicious Activity Report (Part 1)

Following an extraordinary week of developments which saw the removal of Danske from Estonia, its voluntary departure from Latvia, Lithuania and Russia, the launching of an investigation of both Danish and Estonian regulators by the European Banking Authority, the prolonging of an argument between the two regulators by the publication of hitherto private correspondence AND the addition of Swedbank to those embroiled in the laundromat, we've recorded a special episode to talk about all these developments.

And what developments they have been!