Estonian former executive of troubled Danske Bank found dead

The former head of the Estonian branch of Denmark's scandal-plagued Danske Bank has been found dead, police said Wednesday.

Police found the body of Aivar Rehe, 56, in his yard on Wednesday, two days after he had last been seen.

"There are no marks of violence on the body and nothing points to an accident," police spokeswoman Marie Aava told reporters.

They would be releasing no further details, so as to spare the family, she said. "Nor will there by an inquest," she added.

This has led local media to speculate that Rehe had died by suicide.

Rehe was the head of Danske Bank's Estonian branch from 2008 to 2015, two years before it found itself at the centre of a money-laundering scandal.

The bank is under investigation in Estonia, Denmark, the US, Britain and France, accused of helping launder about USD 230 billion (209 billion euros), primarily by Russians, through its branch in Estonia between 2007 and 2015.

Rehe was not considered a suspect in the investigation. But Estonian police detained 10 other former employees of the bank last year and went on to charge them all with money-laundering.

Earlier this year, Rehe had said he thought the anti-money laundering measures taken by Dansk Bank had been sufficient at the time, but that he nevertheless felt responsible for what had happened.