Razzia at Deutsche Bank: Search measures are currently being carried out on Deutsche Bank’s premises based on a search warrant by the Frankfurt district court, as the Frankfurt public prosecutor announced on Friday. Officials from the public prosecutor’s office in Frankfurt, the Federal Criminal Police Office and the financial supervisory authority Bafin are involved in the action, the judiciary in Frankfurt announced. The public prosecutor’s office is currently unable to provide any further information due to the ongoing investigative measures.
“It is an investigative measure by the public prosecutor’s office in Frankfurt in connection with reports of suspected money laundering that the bank has submitted. Deutsche Bank is fully cooperating with the authorities,” a spokesman for the institute told the FAZ. The Bafin declined to comment.
Bank employees are required by law to immediately report any suspicion that customers are attempting to launder funds from criminal transactions or that transactions are related to the financing of terrorism. Such suspicious transaction reports often concern the correspondent banking sector. There, Deutsche Bank, with its global reach, helps other financial institutions to process payment transactions.
As reported by the German Press Agency, the investigators accuse Germany’s largest financial institution of having submitted the suspected money laundering reports too late, although there had already been suspicions earlier. The “Handelsblatt” reported, citing a person familiar with the searches, that the search was “an isolated case from the customer sphere”.
The SAR is another in a series of legal and regulatory issues plaguing CEO Christian Sewing. In March, US regulators stepped up their surveillance efforts after it emerged that Deutsche Bank had broken the terms of a court settlement. The reason was the sluggish speed at which she passed on allegations made by an informant to the authorities.
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Most recently, the bank’s premises were searched in 2018 on suspicion of money laundering. At that time, video recordings frightened investors, on which around 170 officials turned the institute’s offices upside down. The bank was fined €15m for failing to report suspicious transfers and failing to have adequate oversight.
After the searches became known, the shares of the money house came under pressure. The papers give up their daily gains of 2.8 percent at times and are down 3 percent.