On Wednesday, the body of Aivar Rehe, the former head of the Estonian branch of Danske Bank, was found in his backyard. Everything at the scene pointed to death by suicide, according to media reports.
Estonian police spokesman Kristjan Lucc said that Rehe had left his home in Tallinn at 10:00 a.m. and did not return.
On Monday, police had begun searching for him, as he was supposedly involved in a money-laundering scandal.
Earlier, during a fraud investigation into the Danish bank, the investigating authorities interrogated the former executive director of the branch, but it is not known if Rehe had been implicated in any crimes.
On 1 July 2018, the Estonian prosecutor's office announced the initiation of a criminal investigation into the circumstances of possible money laundering involving employees of Danske Bank's branch in the country.
The total amount of funds were estimated at a minimum of €7 billion. In September, the bank published the results of an audit of 6,200 customers of the Estonian branch, recognising that most of them could be considered suspicious. In the same month, the head of the bank, Thomas Borgen, resigned amid the scandal. Aivar Rehe had served as CEO of Danske Bank's Estonian branch from 2006-2015.
