CBS professor is charged with money laundering and stripped of teaching and supervision tasks
Danske Bank is one of CBS' 10 Corporate Partners together with, for example, Novo Nordisk, Qvarts, and Maersk. (Photo: Mette Koors)
Henrik Ramlau-Hansen, CBS professor and former financial director of Danske Bank, is no longer teaching or taking on new tasks as a supervisor, as he has been charged with money laundering as part of the investigation into Danske Bank.
News | 22. May 2019
For the time being, Associate Professor and former financial director of Danske Bank Henrik Ramlau-Hansen will no longer be teaching or taking on new tasks as supervisor, as he has been charged with money laundering. The charge is part of the Public Prosecutor for Serious Economic Crime’s investigation of money laundering into Danske Bank.
“As a teacher, you’re a role model to your students. Because of this, we have, based on a mutual agreement with Henrik Ramlau-Hansen, decided that he, for the time being, does not teach or take on new tasks as a supervisor, but focuses on his tasks related to research instead,” says Søren Hvidkjær, the Dean of Research at CBS.
Henrik Ramlau-Hansen continues to work as a researcher at CBS. (Photo: CBS)
So far, 10 former employees in leading positions at Danske Bank have been charged with money laundering in Danske Bank. This includes the former CEO Thomas Borgen, who was the Executive in Residence at CBS in 2017/2018, and the chief legal officer Flemming Pristed.
In general, CBS has made a stand against Danske Bank by terminating future involvement after it became clear that the bank was deeply involved in one of Europe’s biggest bank scandals. But if it hadn’t been because of legislation, CBS would, according to the former President of CBS, Per Holten-Andersen, “have considered going further in terminating CBS’ collaboration with whitewash-hit Danske Bank,” he said in the CBS WIRE podcast: Grade focus, foreign researchers and Danske Bank: A farewell from Per Holten-Andersen.
At the time of writing, Henrik Ramlau-Hansen had already finished all of his teaching duties and the students that have Henrik Ramlau-Hansen as a supervisor have been informed and can continue with him.
Until 2016, Henrik Ramlau-Hansen worked as the financial director of Danske Bank. In this position, he had the responsibility for abiding by laws aimed at money laundering. Shortly after he stopped working at Danske Bank, he took over the position as the chairman of the Danish Financial Supervisory Authority. This authority is also known as the banks’ watchdog. He left the position in May 2018.
Danske Bank’s own investigation has revealed that the management of the bank were warned multiple times about suspicious customers and serious weak points in efforts to prevent money laundering at the Estonian branch of the bank.
Søren Hvidkjær explains that Henrik Ramlau-Hansen had kept senior management informed about the whole process from the start.
“The senior management at CBS have been notified early on about the process of the charges against Henrik Ramlau-Hansen. We appreciate the confidence he has shown by informing us,” says Søren Hvidkjær.
Søren Hvidkjær and Henrik Ramlau-Hansen refrained from answering follow-up questions about the decision.
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