Largest Money Laundering Scandal in Europe - without Bitcoin?

Thomas Borgen, (now former) CEO of Danske Bank has resigned. An investigation showed that a subsidiary of his company was involved in a large part of money laundering. The story shows that money laundering has been around before Bitcoin. It also makes it clear that the underlying technology could even be beneficial.

According to Bill Browder "the largest money laundering scandal in the history of Europe" confirms what many have long known: money laundering is also possible without Bitcoin. And apparently even very well.

According to a report, the largest bank in Denmark examined cash flows totaling 200 billion euros. Result: The majority of the cash flows was "suspicious". The Estonian branch of the largest Danish bank was heavily involved in money laundering.

This finally led Thomas Borgen, CEO of the bank, to resign from his post:

"Even though the report concludes by [...] completing my legal duties, I believe that it is best for all parties involved to step down."

The Danish Financial Supervisory Authority will now resume an investigation that was originally completed in May. But due to the new findings, the authority feels called clearly to take a closer look at the matter. According to reports from the Reuters news agency, these investigations apparently affected 15,000 customers and 9.5 million transactions between 2007 and 2015. It should be billions, the unknown washed during this time.

Ultimately, the bank itself could not pinpoint how much money had actually been laundered through and through their accounts. You might ask cynically,

Why not Bitcoin?

Finally, Bitcoin is in disrepute to be used again and again for money laundering, drug trafficking and terrorist financing. What is often overlooked (and the current case illustrated): These problems are not only related to Bitcoin. In addition, Bitcoin and the blockchain technology underlying the digital currency is not as anonymous as it is often said. Ultimately, anyone who wants to can understand the individual transactions and, if necessary, conduct research.