On December 14, 2011, four employees of one of Germany’s biggest banks, Commerzbank, were charged for helping launder money from Russian telecommunications companies, as well as a Danish lawyer who facilitated the activities. They are alleged to have illegally transferred $150 million in Russian telecom assets on behalf of former Russian Telecoms Minister Leonid Reiman between 1995 and 2008. Commerzbank was fined €7.3 million by the Frankfurt civil court. In 2012, four of the defendants settled the charges, while the charges against the fifth were dropped due to the expiration of the statute of limitations.