Deutsche Bank Faces Fresh Calls for Scrutiny in Congress
December 13 2018 - 12:54PM
Dow Jones News
By Jenny Strasburg
Scrutiny of Deutsche Bank AG on Capitol Hill looks to be
intensifying as Germany's largest lender deals with multiple
investigations into its anti-financial crime efforts.
Two Democratic senators asked Republican colleagues who control
the Senate Banking Committee to launch a "thorough, detailed
bipartisan committee investigation" into the bank.
The request Thursday from Senators Elizabeth Warren (D., Mass)
and Chris Van Hollen (D., Md.) cites probes into the German
lender's activities in Russia and its role in recently surfaced
money-laundering investigations tied to a Denmark banking scandal
and offshore tax havens.
Deutsche Bank hasn't been accused of wrongdoing in the new
probes and said it is cooperating with authorities.
"Deutsche Bank takes its legal obligations seriously and remains
committed to cooperating with authorized investigations," a
Deutsche Bank spokesman said.
Around 170 German federal officers raided Deutsche Bank offices
in Frankfurt in late November as part of an offshore tax-evasion
and money-laundering case. The probes have drawn fresh attention to
the German bank's controls around financial crime. The bank has
paid hundreds of millions of dollars in regulatory fines in recent
years in connection with alleged failures to prevent money
laundering and sanctions violations.
"The compliance history of this institution raises serious
questions about the national security and criminal risks posed by
its U.S. operations," the Democratic Senators said in a letter
Thursday to Sen. Mike Crapo (R., Idaho), chairman of the Senate
Committee on Banking, Housing and Urban Affairs.
Republicans control the Senate Banking Committee, requiring
their support for a full committee investigation. A spokeswoman for
the Republican majority members didn't immediately respond to a
request for comment.
The House, soon to be controlled by Democrats, could be a bigger
focus of concern for Deutsche Bank.
In 2017, House Democrats led by Rep. Maxine Waters of California
repeatedly called for Deutsche Bank to disclose details of any ties
to Russia, President Trump and related client accounts. U.S.
investigators since 2017 have been looking for possible ties
between Russian financial institutions, Mr. Trump and anyone
affiliated with him. Mr. Trump has repeatedly denied any collusion
between his campaign and Russia.
Deutsche Bank rebuffed the House requests, which lacked
Republican support. Deutsche Bank executives expect Democrats to
come back with new requests next year, since Democrats last month
won control of the House.
Sens. Warren and Van Hollen on Thursday asked for a public
hearing along with a probe, with a focus on Deutsche Bank's role as
a correspondent bank handling international money transfers for
other banks. Correspondent banking for years has been widely
vulnerable to tainted money flows identified by government
officials for aiding sanctions violations and terror financing.
The Democratic senators said they want to know more about
Deutsche Bank's role funneling foreign money into the U.S. banking
system.
Write to Jenny Strasburg at jenny.strasburg@wsj.com
(END) Dow Jones Newswires
December 13, 2018 12:39 ET (17:39 GMT)
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