Estonian bankers may have laundered up to $13 billion between 2011 and 2016 in four schemes using nonresident accounts and other tactics, Madis Reimand, head of the Estonian police service's Financial Intelligence Unit, told Bloomberg News.
By way of example, Reimand cited €7.3 billion of Russian stocks and bonds were transferred to Estonia illegally in 2012, the newswire wrote May 25. He reportedly added that accounts of U.K.-based companies "played a significant role" in the schemes.
"Our general problem with such transactions from the East, and in general with large international schemes, is that it's impossible in practice to find out to which prior crimes any assets of dubious origin are tied," Reimand said, adding that there is not enough evidence to pursue a criminal case.
Reimand, meanwhile, declined to comment on specific banks, but said more than one operating Estonian lender was involved in all transactions.
