Christian Sewing, CEO of Deutsche Bank AG, pauses when Germany’s largest bank announces full-year revenue in Frankfurt, Germany on Friday. February 1, 2019. Deutsche Banks revenues contracted for the eighth consecutive quarter in the last months of last year, complicating CEO Christian Sewings with the plan to turn the lender around by reducing costs. Photographer: Krisztian Bocsi / Bloomberg via Getty Images
Krisztian Bocsi | Bloomberg | Getty Images
Deutsche Bank has agreed to pay about $ 125 million to solve separate U.S. investigations into allegations that it paid bribes to secure overseas business and manipulated metal markets, according to a person with direct knowledge of the deal.
According to a copy of the documents filed Friday in Brooklyn federal court, the bank, a global capital markets player and Germany’s leading lender, signed a three-year deferred processing agreement.
Almost all of the dollar value of the punishments announced on Friday is linked to the allegation that Deutsche Bank employees violated the Foreign Corruption Practices Act with relations in China, Abu Dhabi, Saudi Arabia and Italy, according to the person , which declined to be so. identified talking about normative issues.
That equates to about $ 123 million in fines paid to the Justice Department and the Securities and Exchange Commission, the person said. The bank is also paying $ 1.9 million to the DOJ linked to counterfeiting in the metals markets, a figure that gives the bank a previous deal with the Commodity Futures Trading Commission.
“Deutsche Bank was involved in a criminal plan to hide payments from so-called consultants around the world who acted as bribery channels to foreign officials and others so that they could unfairly obtain and retain lucrative business projects,” said Seth DuCharme, a lawyer. in functions of the United States. statement. “This office will continue to consider responsible financial institutions operating in the United States and engaging in practices to facilitate criminal activity with the goal of increasing its results.”
The news is the latest recognition of poor quality controls at Deutsche Bank since the 2008 financial crisis. In 2015, the bank agreed to pay $ 2.5 billion to settle charges that were part of a network of banks that manipulated the Libor global interest rate. In 2017, the firm agreed to a $ 7.2 billion settlement for its role in creating aggregate mortgage bonds during the housing bubble.
Most recently, Deutsche Bank paid the New York authorities $ 150 million in July, and CEO Christian Sewing admitted that his company should never have accepted child sex trafficker Jeffrey Epstein as a customer. to customer in 2013.
According to a 2019 New York Times report, Deutsche Bank has given bribes and expensive gifts to politically related people in China.
Bank spokesman Dan Hunter said the firm has taken “significant” steps to address the problems, including spending more than 1 billion euros ($ 1.222 billion) on controls and training.
“While we cannot comment on the particulars of the resolutions, we take responsibility for these past actions, which took place between 2008 and 2017,” the bank said. “Our thorough internal investigations and full cooperation with the Department of Justice and SEC investigations into these matters reflect our transparency and determination to put these issues firmly into the past.”
The deal is also the latest banking deal announced during the waning days of the Trump presidency. Deutsche Bank has been Donald Trump’s main lender for the past two decades and currently owes the institution more than $ 300 million, the Times reported.