Deutsche Bank: A search in Panama Papers – Economy

• 170 investigators raided Deutsche Bank premises on Thursday. According to the prosecutors, this is the suspicion of money laundering.
• The investigations are related to the Panama Papers and the leaks at sea.

The Frankfurt prosecutor's office on Thursday raided several Deutsche Bank offices in Frankfurt and surrounding areas. The investigation was based on suspicions of money laundering, the agency said. About 170 officials from the Public Prosecutor's Office, the Federal Office of Criminal Police, the Tax Inquiry and the Federal Police have been in action since morning. Six objects in total had been searched.

According to the prosecution, investigations are directed against an employee aged 50 and 46, as well as other unidentified individuals responsible for the business. After an evaluation of the data available at the Federal Criminal Police Office of Offshore Leaks and Panama Papers, it was suspected that Deutsche Bank was helping its clients to set up offshore companies in tax havens. In doing so, funds from criminal offenses were transferred to Deutsche Bank accounts without the bank repaid suspicious transaction reports.

In 2016, more than 900 customers representing a business volume of 311 million euros would have been supported by a group company based in the British Virgin Islands, the parquet floor announced.

As shown by the Panama Papers, an international research on tax havens launched by the SZ, 14 German financial institutions have created a total of more than 1,200 screen companies within the law firm Mossack Fonseca. On its own, Deutsche Bank has created more than 400 offshore companies by 2007.

Deutsche Bank confirmed that on Thursday, commercial premises were searched in several locations. One "would cooperate fully with the authorities," said a spokesman.