Swedbank hires Nordia to represent it in ‘probe’

Bloomberg

Swedbank AB has hired the law firm Nordia as its external legal counsel to handle a criminal investigation into potential fraud, amid a growing money-laundering scandal that has engulfed the bank.
Swedbank fired Chief Executive Officer Birgitte Bonnesen as laundering allegations against Sweden’s oldest bank and biggest mortgage lender pile up.
The lender is being investigated by the financial supervisory authorities of Sweden and Estonia, as well as by authorities in the US, amid claims it was part of the $230 billion Danske Bank A/S Estonian scandal. Swedbank’s share price has plunged by roughly a third since the case first erupted on February 20.
The Stockholm-based lender published a statement by Nordia, in which it challenged the prosecutor’s assessment in Swedish media that Swedbank had been uncooperative.
In its statement, Nordia said that allegations by the prosecutor that Swedbank “has not cooperated during the search in the desired way, but to the contrary has hampered the search by not waiving the attorney client privilege and the confidentiality” is “completely incorrect and incomprehensible.”
According to Nordia, “it was pointed out that information covered by attorney client privilege cannot be seized.”