EIJC19 & Dataharvest

Journalist Eva Jung from Danish newspaper Berlingske opens this year’s EIJC & Dataharvest with a keynote on how she and two colleagues at Berlingske uncovered one of history’s biggest money laundering cases that ended costing top management their jobs, had the shares of the bank dwindling 13 billion euros downwards and sending Danish and European authorities on a tightening-up mission. The Danish team cooperated closely with the Organized Crime and Corruption reporting Project (OCCRP) and other media on leaks and big scale data analysis. The €200 bn case of Denmark’s biggest lender Danske Bank showed how cash from Russia and former Soviet states flushed effortlessly through the bank’s Estonian branch with no one acting on the close ties to the dictatorship of Azerbaijan and allegedly the FSB and members of the Putin family. Meanwhile the banks top management ignored warning after warning showcasing the problems. The story is part of a larger picture of big Nordic banks involved in suspected large scale money laundering activities, such as the recent Nordea and Swedbank revelations. Eva will share her experiences – from the inception of the story and the research and all the way to the extensive follow up that ensued. The project is nominated for the European Press Prize.