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FRANKFURT: Police raided Thursday at six Deutsche Bank offices in Frankfurt and surrounding areas for money-laundering allegations related to "Panama Papers," the prosecutor general said in the German financial capital.
Investigators are investigating the activities of two anonymous employees of Deutsche Bank who allegedly helped clients set up offshore companies to launder money, the prosecutor's office said.
Approximately 170 police, prosecutors and tax inspectors searched the offices where commercial and electronic documents were seized.
"Of course, we will cooperate closely with the Frankfurt public prosecutor's office, because it is also in our interest to clarify the facts," said Deutsche Bank, adding that she believed she had already provided all the relevant information relating to the " Panama". Papers".
The news comes as Deutsche Bank tries to repair its reputation in tatters after three years of losses and scandals financial and regulatory.
Christian Sewing was appointed CEO in April to help the bank rebuild. It reduced US operations and redistributed the board of directors, but revenues continued to fall.
Deutsche Bank shares lost more than 3% at 12:20 GMT and lost nearly half their value this year.
LINKS TO THE LARGE
The investigation was opened after investigators had examined alleged "offshore leaks" and "Panama Papers," the prosecutor said.
The Panama Papers, comprising millions of documents from the Panamanian law firm Mossack Fonseca, were leaked to the media in April 2016.
Several banks, including Scandinavian lenders Nordea and Handelsbanken, have already been fined by regulators for violating the money laundering rules following publication of the documents.
Prosecutors said they were investigating whether Deutsche Bank could have helped clients set up offshore companies in tax havens, so that funds transferred to Deutsche Bank accounts could circumvent protection measures. against money laundering.
In 2016 alone, more than 900 customers were serviced by a registered Deutsche Bank subsidiary in the British Virgin Islands, generating a volume of 311 million euros, prosecutors said.
They also said that Deutsche Bank employees would have failed in their duties by neglecting to report suspicions of money laundering about foreign clients and companies involved in tax evasion schemes.
The investigation is distinct from another money laundering scandal involving the Danish lender Danske Bank, in which Deutsche Bank is involved.
Danske is the subject of an investigation for suspicious payments of a total amount of 200 billion euros from 2007 and a source informed directly of the case said to Reuters that Deutsche Bank had helped to process the bulk of payments.
An executive director of Deutsche Bank said the lender had only played a secondary role as Danske Bank's "banking correspondent", thus limiting the information he needed on the people at the bank. Origin of transactions.
UNDER SCRUTINY
Weaknesses in Deutsche Bank's controls to prevent money laundering attracted the attention of regulators on both sides of the Atlantic. The bank has publicly stated that it agrees with the need to improve its processes to properly identify customers.
In September, the German Financial Constable – BaFin – ordered Deutsche Bank to do more to prevent money laundering and "terrorist financing", and appointed KPMG as a third party to assess progress.
In August, Reuters announced that Deutsche Bank had discovered new shortcomings in its ability to fully identify customers and the source of their wealth.
Last year, Deutsche Bank was fined nearly $ 700 million for allowing money laundering through artificial transactions between Moscow, London and New York. An investigation by the US Department of Justice is still ongoing.
Deutsche Bank has been under pressure following the annual losses and has agreed to pay a $ 7.2 billion settlement with US authorities last year for its sale of toxic mortgage securities in anticipation of the 2008 financial crisis. – Reuters
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