Host Gregg N. Sofer is joined by Salvador Hernandez, former senior FBI official and private-sector compliance officer and current senior compliance and ethics advisor at Husch Blackwell, to discuss the recent U.S. Department of Justice settlement involving Danske Bank A/S. The settlement resolved a DOJ investigation concerning instances of bank fraud that allowed Danske Bank to move billions of dollars through the U.S. financial system from high-risk accounts for non-resident customers of the bank’s Estonia-based branch. Danske Bank See more +

Host Gregg N. Sofer is joined by Salvador Hernandez, former senior FBI official and private-sector compliance officer and current senior compliance and ethics advisor at Husch Blackwell, to discuss the recent U.S. Department of Justice settlement involving Danske Bank A/S. The settlement resolved a DOJ investigation concerning instances of bank fraud that allowed Danske Bank to move billions of dollars through the U.S. financial system from high-risk accounts for non-resident customers of the bank’s Estonia-based branch. Danske Bank also settled charges brought by the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) in a parallel proceeding for violations of U.S. securities laws.

As part of the settlement, Danske Bank pled guilty to conspiracy to commit bank fraud and agreed to forfeit $2.06 billion. In a notable development, the settlement also involved a first-of-its-kind provision whereby Danske Bank agreed to “implement evaluation criteria related to compliance in its executive review and bonus system so that each Bank executive is evaluated on what the executive has done to ensure that the executive’s business or department is in compliance with the Compliance Programs and applicable laws and regulations.”

Our discussion will explore how the Danske Bank settlement breaks new ground by targeting executive compensation in the context of compliance program failures. See less -