Deutsche Bank Calls Bitcoin A High Criminal Activity Risk, Yet Gets Raided For Money Laundering

Deutsche Bank Raided For Money Laundering After Calling Crypto A Risk

One of the issues that seems to keep circling back in the cryptocurrency industry is the risk of money laundering, impacting about 1% of all Bitcoin transactions. Though money laundering has been around much longer that crypto, the media tends to highlight how cyber criminals use this innovative technology as a way to steal funds and perform other hacks. Due to some suspicious activities at Deutsche Bank AG, local police recently performed a raid, reported Bloomberg on November 29^th.

The institution was confronted with 170 officials, pursuing suspicions that have been prominent for the officials since the 2016 Panama papers. This particular investigation, however, is reviewing action in the last five years. There have already been two suspects discussed but reports so far are only including their ages – 50 and 46 years old.

As the raid occurred, the officials took custody of both electronic and physical files. Evidence came to light that the lending bank had been setting up clients with off-shore accounts as a way to evade various taxes. Along with the above allegations, the bank is accused of not reporting accounts that they believed were involved in receiving illegally-obtained cash. Based on the report from Bloomberg, over $354 million was processed in 2016 alone.

Over the last decade, Deutsche Bank has been no stranger to legal ramifications, spending over $18 billion in settlements and fines. Right now, the only bank that beats them out for the legal bills is the Royal Bank of Scotland Group Plc, which has had to pay about $100 million more.

On the current state of Deutsche Bank, analyst Markus Riesselmann of Independent Research commented,

“Just when you thought Deutsche Bank had left its legal troubles behind it, there’s more… Investors really want to be able to focus on the bank’s operating business, so this noise around them is quite unhelpful for the mood.”