NEW YORK, Aug 27 (Reuters) - Nordea Bank

agreed to pay a $35 million civil fine to settle charges by a

top New York regulator that the Finland-listed bank failed to

properly police money laundering and other criminal activities,

including matters uncovered in the Panama Papers scandal.

New York state financial services superintendent Adrienne

Harris faulted Nordea's inadequate due diligence over customers

and high-risk banking partners, saying even the bank recognized

its oversight faced a "critical" risk of failure.

Jamie Graham, Nordea's chief compliance officer, said the

Helsinki-based bank was pleased to settle, and acknowledged that

it had historically "underestimated the complexity of preventing

financial crime and the resources needed for that purpose."

New York said Nordea was linked to billions of dollars of

high-risk transactions between 2008 and 2019, including at a

Vesterport, Denmark, branch that implicated the bank in schemes

known as the Russian Laundromat and Azerbaijani Laundromat.

A consent order said Nordea "acknowledged its shortcomings"

with respect to anti-money laundering procedures at the former

Denmark branch, at former branches in Latvia, Lithuania and

Estonia, and in correspondent bank and customer relationships.

Published in 2016, the Panama Papers provided details on

thousands of offshore accounts and entities, including tax

havens linked to individuals like Ukrainian President Volodymyr

Zelenskiy and Argentine soccer star Lionel Messi.

They were based on leaks of about 11.5 million documents

from the now-defunct Panamanian law firm Mossack Fonseca.

Nordea said it will include the $35 million fine as a charge

in third-quarter results.