Deutsche Bank Offices Searched -- WSJ
November 30 2018 - 3:02AM
Dow Jones News
Investigation is focused on employees suspected of helping
clients launder money
By Jenny Strasburg in London and Ulrike Dauer and Patricia Kowsmann in Frankfurt
This article is being republished as part of our daily
reproduction of WSJ.com articles that also appeared in the U.S.
print edition of The Wall Street Journal (November 30, 2018).
German authorities raided Deutsche Bank AG offices Thursday as
part of an investigation into whether the firm helped clients
launder money through tax havens. One of the employees suspected of
involvement works in the division responsible for fighting
financial crime, according to people familiar with the matter.
Around 170 police officers and other officials seized documents
during searches through six different properties Thursday,
including one employee's home, according to authorities.
The raid was a visible sign of mounting legal problems for the
German lender, which has faced a string of allegations and costly
legal settlements tied to failures to prevent money laundering and
other banking violations.
Thursday morning, police vehicles lined up outside Deutsche
Bank's central Frankfurt headquarters, and German federal police
and other officers crowded into the lobby of the high-rise towers.
Officers soon filtered upstairs onto other floors of the bank to
search records, a person inside the bank said.
Not long after, Randal Quarles, the Fed's vice chairman for
supervision, arrived for a prescheduled lunchtime meeting with
Deutsche Bank's chief executive Christian Sewing and regulatory
chief Sylvie Matherat, people familiar with the matter said.
A Fed spokesman said Mr. Quarles was in Frankfurt on official
Fed business, and neither the business nor the meeting with
Deutsche Bank was related to the raid.
The meeting was arranged well before Thursday, the people said.
Mr. Sewing became CEO in April and before Thursday had spoken with
Mr. Quarles by telephone, people close to the bank say.
Ms. Matherat oversees the division responsible for detecting and
preventing financial crime by clients of the bank. She has come
under pressure amid discussions of a potential management shake-up,
The Wall Street Journal reported this week, citing people close to
the bank.
The German authorities are expected to return to Deutsche Bank
Friday, according to people close to the bank. Areas they searched
Thursday included management-board offices, one of the people
said.
The probe includes two unidentified Deutsche Bank employees aged
50 and 46 and other unidentified employees suspected of helping
clients create offshore entities in tax havens, the prosecutor's
office said in a statement. The person who works in the financial
crime-fighting division remained an employee Thursday, the people
familiar with the matter said.
Deutsche Bank confirmed the investigation. Both the bank and
prosecutors said it is related to the Panama Papers, a trove of
records revealed by a consortium of journalists in 2016 tied to a
Panamanian law firm that specialized in offshore holding
companies.
"As far as we are concerned, we have already provided the
authorities with all the relevant information regarding Panama
Papers," Deutsche Bank said. It said that the bank would cooperate
closely in this latest probe "as it is in our interest as well to
clarify the facts."
The investigation focuses on transactions spanning 2013 to 2018,
prosecutors said.
People close to the bank said its lawyers and executives aren't
certain of the full scope of the investigation, including whether
it is solely focused on the Panama Papers case, or could extend
more broadly.
Deutsche Bank shares ended trading in Frankfurt down 3.4%.
Reports stemming from the Panama Papers linked government and
other public figures and company executives around the world to
overseas assets in tax havens ranging from the British Virgin
Islands to Panama. The records showed hundreds of millions of
dollars in assets allegedly tied to hundreds of individuals.
Officials suspect that funds from criminal activities were
transferred to Deutsche Bank entities or accounts without the bank
raising flags as required, the prosecutor's office said. The German
prosecutors said Friday they were working based on information from
Panama Papers documents and investigations.
--Ryan Tracy contributed to this article.
Write to Jenny Strasburg at jenny.strasburg@wsj.com, Ulrike
Dauer at ulrike.dauer@wsj.com and Patricia Kowsmann at
patricia.kowsmann@wsj.com
(END) Dow Jones Newswires
November 30, 2018 02:47 ET (07:47 GMT)
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