Estonia emerged last year as the epicentre of a vast scheme to funnel allegedly dirty money from Russia and other former Soviet Union states into the West. Danske Bank A/S said a large part of 200 billion euros ($220 billion) in transactions through its Estonian unit were suspicious, and Swedbank AB faces allegations that it may have handled more than $100 billion in suspicious transactions.

The Baltic country says its reputation and that of its finance industry has been severely damaged as a result of the scandals, and earlier this year signalled that it would seek compensation. Then-Justice Minister Urmas Reinsalu said in February that he had ordered an analysis of “all legal options.”

In a meeting with Swedbank’s chairman last week, Helme blamed the bank for making “conscious decisions and choices” that “enabled money laundering.” That meeting followed Swedbank’s firing of three Estonian executives, as the bank continued a purge which earlier this year included the firing of its chief executive officer.

Estonia Says Swedbank Made Choices That Enabled Money Laundering

According to a finance ministry spokesman, Ott Heinapuu, the Estonian government hasn’t signed any contracts yet with “any U.S. law offices” as the minister “is exploring different options during his U.S. visit on how to proceed with this topic.”

Helme said he wants to figure out “how to ensure that the money laundering investigations of our banks that have been launched by the U.S. authorities, which will very likely end with huge fines, would be conducted so that we would be involved in the process throughout and that the majority of the fine would, in the end, come into the Estonia budget.”