Deutsche Bank’s Big Raid Last Year Is Settled With Small Fine

(Bloomberg) --

Deutsche Bank AG was given a small fine as a result of a case that led to a big raid on its headquarters a year ago.

Frankfurt prosecutors completed their probe in a case of suspected money laundering and ordered the lender to pay 15 million euros ($16.6 million) for failing to flag suspicious transactions in time and lacking oversight, according to a statement on Friday. They also ended investigations against two Deutsche Bank employees because of a lack of evidence.

Footage of the raid that involved 170 law enforcement officials in late November last year spooked investors and sent the lender's share price to an all-time low. The bank under Chief Executive Officer Christian Sewing later said it also put off clients and helped to push the bank to a deep loss in the fourth quarter.

The settlement ends a case “that burdened us a lot last year,” Deutsche Bank spokesman Joerg Eigendorf said in a statement. The lender accepts the fine and the prosecutors also said that its investigation into Deutsche Bank's role in the Danske money-laundering scandal is “well-advanced,” according to the statement.

Deficient money-laundering controls has long been a sore point at Deutsche Bank and it's the target of various probes by German and U.S. watchdogs and law enforcement agencies. Sewing has vowed to improve those controls. Deutsche Bank has tripled staff in the anti-financial crime unit since 2015 and it has invested 700 million euros in “modernizing the most important” control functions since 2016, it said in the statement.

To contact the reporter on this story: Steven Arons in Frankfurt at sarons@bloomberg.net

To contact the editors responsible for this story: Dale Crofts at dcrofts@bloomberg.net, Christian Baumgaertel

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