Christian Sewing, CEO of Deutsche Bank AG, is taking a break as Germany’s largest bank announces year-round 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, which complicated CEO Christian Sewings’ plan to return the creditor by cutting costs. Photographer: Krisztian Bocsi / Bloomberg through Getty Images
Krisztian Bocsi | Bloomberg | Getty Images
Deutsche Bank has agreed to pay about $ 125 million to solve separate US surveys on allegations that it has paid a bribe to secure overseas business and manipulated the metals markets, according to a person with direct knowledge. of the transaction.
The bank, a global capital market player and Germany’s largest creditor, has a three-year delayed prosecution agreement as part of the settlement, according to a copy of documents filed Friday in federal court in Brooklyn.
Almost the entire dollar value of the sentences to be announced on Friday is linked to the accusation that Deutsche Bank employees violated the Law on Corrupt Practices Abroad with Relations in China, Abu Dhabi, Saudi Arabia and Italy, according to the person who refused to be identified by talking about regulatory issues.
That’s about $ 123 million in fines paid to the Department of Justice and the Securities and Exchange Commission, he said. The bank is also paying $ 1.9 million to the Justice Department for counterfeiting in the metals markets, a figure that gives the bank credit for an earlier decision with the Commodity Futures Trading Commission.
“Deutsche Bank has engaged in a criminal scheme to conceal payments to so-called consultants around the world who have served as bribery pipelines to foreign officials and others so that they can unfairly obtain and maintain profitable business projects. “said Seth DuCharme, the United States Attorney General’s statement. “This office will continue to own responsible financial institutions operating in the United States and engage in practices to facilitate criminal activity to enhance its results.”
The news is the latest recognition of quality controls at Deutsche Bank since the financial crisis of 2008. In 2015, the bank agreed to pay $ 2.5 billion for the settlement of fees, as part of a network of banks that manipulated the global LIBOR interest rate. In 2017, the firm agreed to a $ 7.2 billion settlement for its role in creating sour mortgage bonds during the housing bubble.
More recently, Deutsche Bank paid the New York authorities $ 150 million in July, and CEO Christian Sewing acknowledged that his company should never have accepted child sex trafficker Jeffrey Epstein as a customer in 2013.
Deutsche Bank has offered bribes and expensive gifts to politically connected people in China, according to a 2019 New York Times report.
The bank’s spokesman, Dan Hunter, said the company had taken “significant” steps to address the issues, including spending more than € 1 billion on controls and training.
“Although we cannot comment on the specifics of the resolutions, we assume responsibility for these past actions, which took place between 2008 and 2017,” the bank said. “Our in-depth internal investigations and full cooperation with the DOJ and SEC investigations into these issues reflect our transparency and determination to put these issues firmly in the past.”
The deal is also the latest banking settlement that was announced in the declining days of the Trump presidency. Deutsche Bank has been Donald Trump’s main creditor for the past two decades and now owes the institution more than $ 300 million, the Times reported.