[2018-10-19] Biggest Bank in Nordic Region Bans Bitcoin, Gets Caught for Money

[BitcoinArsenal]

Nordea Bank, the largest financial group in the Nordic countries, which banned Bitcoin in January, has been caught in a major money laundering scandal for allegedly receiving dirty money from two banks in the Baltics.
Full article on CryptoCoinNews

[BitHodler]

Pretty ironic to see a bank that blamed Bitcoin for being used by money launderers doing exactly that itself. I hope that it will be a wake-up call for people to realize how much of a criminal entities banks really are.

Overall, banks have been caught frequently throughout the last years laundering drug money, laundering money coming from dictators and other questionable entities, and so forth.

It won't ever stop with how profitable it is for banks to involve themselves into shady practices like money laundering. They make far more money than they will ever have to pay in fines when they get caught.

[snipie]

Overall, banks have been caught frequently throughout the last years laundering drug money, laundering money coming from dictators and other questionable entities, and so forth.

They will never stop. Money is all they care about.
And this should be a reason to adopt blockchain to make that alternative as low as possible 

[buwaytress]

Not a surprise in any way really. Nordic and Baltic banks haven't had a reputation for being friendly towards Bitcoin for a very long time now, even if the governments have been very tolerant of crypto and blockchain startups.

Definitely no big surprise for money laundering activities. All banks start of as laundromats for money. The bigger ones simply found ways to branch off with legitimate services.

[Kakmakr]

This is excellent ammunition to fight these Bank shills on social media platforms. They are taking every opportunity to smack talk Bitcoin, when people misuse the Bitcoin technology and they forget that people can misuse centralized financial entities too.

Jamie Dimon and his Bank buddies wants everyone else to think they are squeaky clean, but behind closed curtains it is a cesspool of corruption. Banks have been one of the main reasons why Germany were forced to enter World War II. <Just do your own research on how Hitler we able to turn Germany into a powerhouse within about 7 years and you will know why Banks hated him.> 

[gentlemand]

I'm curious about stuff like this. It seems to pop up fairly often.

There's a yawning gap between a few of however millions of the accounts the bank hosts being used unchecked by money launderers compared to someone calling the bank's CEO and saying 'Hello, can you launder some money for me?' and him saying 'Yes. That's right up our street. When you can pop in?'

Most of the time I will assume it's the former.

[BitHodler]

And this should be a reason to adopt blockchain to make that alternative as low as possible 

How is the blockchain exactly going to counter these illicit activities? There will always be a great deal of demand for banks, and banks will very likely end up using private chains/networks whenever they decided to upgrade.

I often see people talk about Bitcoin or the blockchain in general as if it is a world problem solver, but it really isn't. The only way for regular folks to not financially support banks is to stop using them.

But then again, people are covered in debt and can't make ends meet without it, so they'll keep sticking with that what's bad for them, and that's what makes financial institutions like Visa and MasterCard survive as well.

[Harlot]

There is also the possibility that it could be a coordinated attack towards them, this are still all allegations that is yet to be proven in the court. What I mean about a coordinated attack is that they intendedly sent money to some of their bank accounts to put some blame to them that they are also involve in laundering money. This might be an attack of a group of cryptocurrency enthusiast to make them regret their decisions over Bitcoin, although this frame up is expensive it would look like nothing if this are a group of whales or something.

[carlfebz2]

It won't ever stop with how profitable it is for banks to involve themselves into shady practices like money laundering. They make far more money than they will ever have to pay in fines when they get caught.

This is true that's why these kind of shady transactions or behavior do still continue because they know that they can pay up the fine.They do make more money on illegal stuff than on legal ones that's
why they would surely engage themselves because it do really benefits them. Banks been known to be strict on money laundering but I am the one who got ashamed when they are caught and doing against on the laws that they are imposing.

[pixie85]

Because that's what they're doing every day. Sometimes they get caught and sometimes not. They see Bitcoin as an even better and more anonymous way to launder money which means that Bitcoin is a competition. They earn large fees on these operations and wouldn't want people to be able to do it on their own.
All banks are dirty but that's only because people are dirty. We want to do things off the books and where there's demand someone always pops up with a supply.

[1Referee]

Banks been known to be strict on money laundering but I am the one who got ashamed when they are caught and doing against on the laws that they are imposing.

Banks aren't really that strict to be honest. If you know the trigger limits of your bank (every bank has trigger limits in place), you can keep going on with shady activities for years until they become even tighter, and then you can still work your way around them, it just requires you to find out what their adjusted limits are.

Banks aren't going to choke the crap out of their operations. They know there has to be room for every being (that includes bad actors) to do what he/she wants to do, because if bank X doesn't provide them that possibility, they'll go to bank Y. If you turn your bank into fort knox, you can be sure that your revenue and profits will tank year after year, and that's what they at all cost want to avoid.

[buwaytress]

I'm curious about stuff like this. It seems to pop up fairly often.

There's a yawning gap between a few of however millions of the accounts the bank hosts being used unchecked by money launderers compared to someone calling the bank's CEO and saying 'Hello, can you launder some money for me?' and him saying 'Yes. That's right up our street. When you can pop in?'

Most of the time I will assume it's the former.

I remember reading this year or last, an investigave report that claimed that the hundreds of private banks they looked at actually only have a few clients on their books. They offer normal banking services to tens of thousands of other clients, running at a loss, simply to provide a legitimate front for the few that actually make them their money.

So yeah, I would like to think that for most banks, it's the case of the former, and with someone I know working in financial compliance, there is certainly a lot left desired in ensuring systems that exist work properly to keep the ship tight. Most cases found are down to negligence with compliance employees, or a lack of understanding of constantly evolving regulations. I think the latter scenario used to happen, at least in the bank's formative years.

[manfredmann]

Nordea Bank, the largest financial group in the Nordic countries, which banned Bitcoin in January, has been caught in a major money laundering scandal for allegedly receiving dirty money from two banks in the Baltics.
Full article on CryptoCoinNews

Good for them. They were making themselves to look clean but then again smoke will never be kept with hands. This is their time and I wish them luck for the accusations. It is also about time that those banks who involve in money laundering will going to end their service and its payback time for its client.

[Betwrong]

It's funny that something like this happens frequently in various fields. Those outtalking others regarding moral issues, being some priests or school teachers, turn out to be rapists of minors. Cops making a parade of their fighting the drug cartels turn out to be drug dealers etc. Now it's Nordea Bank which banned Bitcoin for its employees in January and today it has been caught in a major money laundering scandal. And just recently it was Danske Bank which previously told clients and employees to stay away from Bitcoin "due to money laundering implications" and then was penalized for laundering $243 billion. Next time I hear some people talking about Bitcoin's connection to money laundering, I will know, they are engaged in money laundering.

[Carlton Banks]

And just recently it was Danske Bank which previously told clients and employees to stay away from Bitcoin "due to money laundering implications" and then was penalized for laundering $243 billion. Next time I hear some people talking about Bitcoin's connection to money laundering, I will know, they are engaged in money laundering.

It's (apparently) too easy to forget that the debt-based currencies that banks use are the most serious unethical and corrupt institutions on the planet, not to mention the financial markets. These gangsters are printing money, then adding the same amount of money they print to due taxes, then charging interest on that. That's an epic scam

If we complain that Danske or HSBC are laundering money, we may as well complain about Las Vegas being corrupt even though we know that bigger fish in DC are enabling it. The headline should be:

MULTI LAYER SCAM: SCAM TOKEN BANK RUNNING ANOTHER SCAM ON TOP

[gentlemand]

Those outtalking others regarding moral issues, being some priests or school teachers, turn out to be rapists of minors. Cops making a parade of their fighting the drug cartels turn out to be drug dealers etc.

I automatically assume that the person making the loudest 'moral stand' against something is automatically the least moral and it's only a matter of time before they're uncovered. Many a politico who bellows about 'family values' winds up being found with a dildo sprinkled in coke up their shitter while sucking a massive trans cock.

[SoiledDove]

I wonder did they participate in the laundering willingly or were they duped into it? Well, it's some relief to know that the bank which lost face in this manner is one which banned Bitcoin. I don't hate them. But it's interesting to note that their judgement is not sound.

[Taki]

Pretty ironic to see a bank that blamed Bitcoin for being used by money launderers doing exactly that itself. I hope that it will be a wake-up call for people to realize how much of a criminal entities banks really are.

Overall, banks have been caught frequently throughout the last years laundering drug money, laundering money coming from dictators and other questionable entities, and so forth.

It won't ever stop with how profitable it is for banks to involve themselves into shady practices like money laundering. They make far more money than they will ever have to pay in fines when they get caught.

Probably the idea is easy to catch here, they banned bitcoin only to take away suspicions from themselves. That allowed them to manage their dirty things for a while, but they couldn't go away from justice in any way.

[Kemarit]

Ok. I remember this bank because of their controversial memo to their employees not to deal anything related to crypto. LOL. And now they're caught with their hands dirty, how ironic. Its only possible that they have known was going on, but decided to keep mum about it because of the impact it can bring to their reputation. I'm also thinking that they have implemented AML, but yet it was able to pass without the top management of the banks noticing some odds numbers getting it. So I'm under the impression that they have seen it, but didn't react positively.

[acheampong64]

It is indeed the time for the governments to think twice about how they see crypto and blockchain. People have been attributing so many negative sentiments around this but mostly they're wrong and actually people have been doing their wrong times way before crypto and block chain came into existence. Money laundering, drug d human trafficking are all examples and one astonishing thing is that people prefer the old ways rather than blockchain coz they know they can easily be tracked with blockchain.