The ISAF Coalition for Damaged Danske Bank Investors is suing Danske Bank for failing to disclose both Financial and Regulatory material risks, as required under Danish Capital Markets law.
COPENHAGEN, Denmark–An institutional shareholder-driven coalition represented via the International Securities Associations and Foundations Management Company for Damaged Danske Investors (ISAF-Danske), announces its first filing of a lawsuit in a series of planned filings against Danske Bank NS, in connection with the highly publicized money laundering scandal. The Coalition has received investor transactions representing more than 5 billion DKK in losses and have so far certified and received mandates and detailed documentation to represent approximately 1.5 billion DKK in losses in its initial filing.
The Writ is being filed today, December 27, 2019, in the District Court of Copenhagen by the law firm Németh Sigetty Advokatpartnerselskab, the plaintiffs’ coalitions counsel in Denmark. The coalition is further represented by a prominent group of leading American, German and Dutch securities litigation law firms along with top legal and financial services experts.
The lawsuit is filed on behalf of a large group of institutional investors who manage trillions of Euros in assets, including: state and government pension and treasury systems, insurance companies, and asset and investment managers in the United States, Canada, Japan, Sweden, Luxembourg, Norway, Austria, Germany, France, Portugal, Spain, Australia and others.
The lawsuit details how Danske Bank violated Danish Capital Market Laws by deliberately misleading and keeping investors in the dark for years, by not disclosing that its financial income statements and retained earnings included significant earnings from known illegal high-risk money laundering activities.
Not only does the lawsuit address the lack of disclosure, that the Bank’s financial performance was inflated by illegal sources of income, but also that it failed to disclose the further related risks of its continued questionable business activities. This includes the risk of the negative business impact of regulatory intervention, significant regulatory fines, loss of reputation, loss of customers, drop in franchise value and the elimination of a significant income component in the Bank’s existing and future earnings.
While Danske Bank, in its much debated self-investigation by Danish Law Firm Bruun Hjejle, has focused on the Estonian Branch level earnings, the coalition is conducting a special investigation into the potential significant additional earnings generated at the Danske Bank headquarter level. The investigation focuses on the potential income from “spreads” made from the FX currency market making activities, associated with the more than 200 million Euros in suspicious wire transfers.
During 2017, information about Danske Bank’s money laundering activities began to emerge in the market through journalist investigations and other disclosures. Reactions to the revelations of the Bank’s extensive money laundering activities were compounded by the failure of Danske Bank to disclose that it had received, ignored and concealed repeated warnings from regulators and whistleblowers. As a result, Danske Bank’s share price declined by more than 58% between September 2017 and May 2019, causing severe harm to investors. The lawsuit seeks the recovery of damages for investors who were blindsided by Danske Bank’s failure to disclose financial and regulatory risks, as required by Danish Capital Market Law, in connection with its violation of International Banking and Treasury regulations.
Danske Bank shareholders and debtholders should contact ISAF-Danske for more information on how to file a claim for damages. There is no cost or obligation to institutional investors for ISAF-Danske’s review and verification of claims. Eligible investors that wish to anticipate in the collective lawsuit, must must proactively join the ISAF-Danske coalition group. The litigation is taking place in an “opt-in” requirement jurisdiction.
About the ISAF Danske Coalition:
- ISAF Management – (International litigation research, administration, organization, success fee only and risk free financing of all litigation, adverse risk and court costs)
- Németh Sigetty – (Danish Counsel specializing in major complex disputes involving corporate litigants and government authorities)
- Pomerantz LLP – (Leading American law firm specializing in class action securities litigation)
- Lieff Cabraser Heimann & Bernstein LLP (Leading American law firm specializing in class action securities litigation)
- TILP Litigation Rechtsanwaltsgesellschaft mbH – (The leading collective action securities law firm in Germany)
- Lemstra Van der Korst – (The leading collective action and international settlement expert law firm in the Netherlands)
- Battea Class Action Services – (International leader and expert in class action securities claims evaluations, secure collection, storage, processing of investor data and claims filings)
- U.S. Market Advisors Law Group PLLC – (American law firm specializing in expert financial analysis of financial markets trading, economic modeling and transaction analysis)