Caught up in an embarrassing scandal tainting the Scandinavian image of being clean and transparent, Denmark’s Danske Bank said it would forego profits made on suspicious transactions in its Estonian branch from 2007-15 linked to money laundering.

With his case going on for six years, Malta’s high court said the human rights of restaurant owner Silvio Zammit on charges of seeking a 60-billion euro bribe from a Swedish tobacco company were breached because the country’s Attorney General was endlessly pursuing evidence.

Another World Cup – this one in Russia, which allowed disgraced top officials to attend – is over but with the cheering done, a report warns the Beautiful Game will continue to be The Corrupt Game and the leaders of the sport’s governing body, FIFA, will keep enriching themselves.

With Malta police still unable to find the mastermind behind the murder of investigative journalist Daphne Caruana Galizia, the European Union’s top banking watchdog faulted the country’s anti-money laundering unit for its handling of alleged wrongdoings at Pilatus Bank, key to her look into corruption at the highest level.

Romania’s chief anti-corruption prosecutor Laura Codruta Kovesi, whose office has investigated 60 top-ranking officials in one of the European Union’s most corrupt countries, was fired over misconduct charges critics said were a smokescreen to hide government resistance to fight bribery and graft and to insulate politicians from prosecution.

With Scandinavia’s reputation for being clean coming under scrutiny after some corruption reports, Denmark’s Danske Bank finds itself being looked at anew after reports alleged money laundering may have been far worse than reported.

A former Greek defense minister convicted of stealing scores of millions from contracts in a money-laundering scheme has been released from jail on health grounds for a second time pending another appeal, while a former Mayor of Thessaloniki is going back for embezzling city funds.

Ilmars Rimsevics, head of Latvia’s Central Bank and board member for an influential European Central Bank policy making committee, has been charged with accepting bribes and favors including demanding a free fishing vacation to Russia.

Watch Blueprint's new interview with Jean-Jacques Lumumba, a bank executive whose decision to blow the whistle on suspicious transactions in the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) meant he had to flee the country in fear of his life.

The firing by Parliament of Vanja Ćalović Marković, head of Transparency International’s Montenegro chapter from the country’s anti-corruption board was political retribution because of her fight against corruption, the agency said, even as a court hasn’t ruled in a conflict of interest case against her.

Blueprint for Free Speech, together with Riparte il Futuro, FIBGAR, Courage Foundation and ASEBLAC, calls upon the European Council to amend the Directive proposal on whistleblower protection. A copy of our open letter can be found here.

Drawing immediate return fire, European Commission President Jean-Claude Juncker said Italians, whose country is caught in a vortex of instability and political volatility, need to be less corrupt, work harder and stop blaming the European Union for problems in the country’s poorer southern region.