European Bank Shots

Apparently the United States and the Obama administration have failed to make it clear to our European allies that we were rather serious about the whole "economic sanctions against Iran" thing as the cost of doing business on Wall Street, as Germany's Deustche Bank and a few other folks are finding out.

The hard way.

Deutsche Bank AG (DBK) is among four European banks being investigated by U.S. authorities for alleged violations involving oil trading and Iran, according to an attorney with knowledge of the matter.

Regulators including the U.S. Treasury’s Office of Foreign Assets Control, the Federal Reserve, the Justice Department and the Manhattan district attorney’s office are all involved in the probe of Deutsche Bank and three other European banks, said the attorney, who asked not to be identified because the investigations are confidential.

“Deutsche Bank had decided by 2007 to reject any new business with Iran, Syria, Sudan and North Korea and to end existing relationships to the extent it was legally possible,” Deutsche Bank spokeswoman Friederika Borgmann said, declining to comment on the U.S. investigation.

The regulators were in advanced stages of an investigation into banking violations at Standard Chartered Plc (STAN) when the superintendent of New York’s banks, Benjamin Lawsky, moved first in that matter with an Aug. 6 order accusing the London-based lender of multiple violations of state banking laws.

Once the federal authorities resolve their probe of Standard Chartered, they will proceed against the four European banks they have been investigating, including Frankfurt-based Deutsche Bank, according to the attorney. 

It would be impossible to keep a money laundering investigation against Germany's largest bank under wraps, but the message is quite clear.  The US means business here, and Zee Germans now know it.