The shares of some major European banks are falling sharply after an international network of journalists has revealed a new scheme for Russian money laundering

Several Western banks (Raiffeisen, ABN Amro, ING, Rabobank, Citigroup, Deutsche Bank) would be involved in a money-laundering network that has cost billions of euros from Russia, according to investigations by the international network of journalists OCCRP .

Following these disclosures, European bank stocks have fallen sharply in recent days. Finns from Nordea lost 4% on Monday and Austrian Raiffeisen 12% on Tuesday. Crédit Agricole shares fell by 1.36% on Wednesday midday and ING lost 4%, according to AFP.

According to investigative journalists, nearly $ 5 billion worth of transactions were sent via 1.3 million bank transfers from 233,000 companies.

The international network of investigative journalists presents the story of lawyer Erich Rebasso, involved in money laundering transactions.

"In the last days of 2008, Erich Rebasso, an Austrian lawyer, sent a letter to the main headquarters of the Federal Penal Police in Vienna," according to the article posted on the organization's website.

According to the source, the financial scheme was made by Troika Dialog, the largest private investment bank in Russia, and targeted multiple money transfers from Russia, and at least part of the money seemed to be of criminal origin.

In 2008, Rebasso complained to the authorities, but after two years he was informed that the police closed the case because he was outside Austrian jurisdiction.

In July 2012, the lawyer was kidnapped and the family was asked for a ransom of 435,000 euros. Rebasso's body was found three weeks later in a forest near Vienna, according to the OCCRP.

Shortly after the murder, two former Russian police officers were arrested, being accused of having a connection with the demand for redemption, but not with the crime. They were sentenced to eight and nine years in prison respectively, OCCRP wrote.

Created in the early 1990s, Troika Dialog became one of Russia's main private investment companies over the years, until its redemption in 2012 by Russia's largest bank, the Sberbank public group.