Deutsche Bank settles money-laundering case for €7m

Deutsche Bank settled a probe by Frankfurt prosecutors looking into whether the bank violated money-laundering prevention rules for €7 million.

The bank agreed to pay the amount and accepted an administrative penalty notice, the lender said in a statement. Frankfurt prosecutors confirmed the end of the investigation, which found the bank filed to file 701 reports of suspicious activities. Deutsche Bank acted “thoughtlessly,” they said.

The settlement comes less than three months after law enforcement officials raided Deutsche Bank’s headquarters in Frankfurt as part of the investigation. The bank had processed payments related to the extended family of Syrian President Bashar Al-Assad, even though its role was limited to that of a correspondent bank for another lender.

The bank should have reacted to red flags as early as 2017, including a French criminal case that later led to a conviction, and should have reviewed its involvement in the transactions, prosecutors said. The Frankfurt investigation started in 2021 after Deutsche Bank finally filed bulk reports in two instalments.

A criminal probe for money laundering itself was dropped, because Deutsche Bank didn’t have the duty to look into the customers of the lender it worked for, prosecutors said.

Police raided Deutsche Bank’s headquarters again in late May to investigate its investment arm DWS over suspicions of greenwashing. DWS Chief Executive Officer Asoka Woehrmann resigned shortly after the raid.

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