Last year, a series of investigations across Europe led by the Organized Crime and Corruption Reporting Project (OCCRP) uncovered the Azerbaijani Laundromat — a network of illicit financial payments that used reputable banks and secret companies to funnel payments from a US$2.9 billion slush fund to buy political influence and launder Azerbaijan’s international image.
In this scheme, most of the funds were deposited into bank accounts that four UK-registered shell companies held in the Estonian branch of Danske Bank, Denmark’s largest bank.