Handelsblatt Global Edition

January 5, 2017 Thursday

Legal battles;

Deutsche Bank Settles U.S. Tax Fraud Case

HIGHLIGHT: Germany’s biggest bank reached a settlement in another U.S. lawsuit on Wednesday, agreeing to pay $95 million in a tax fraud case.

 

Deutsche Bank on Wednesday agreed to pay $95 million (EURO 90 million) to settle a U.S. lawsuit that charged Germany’s biggest lender with tax evasion.The U.S. attorney’s office filed a lawsuit against the lender in December 2014, originally seeking more than $190 million in taxes, penalties and interest. It claimed Deutsche Bank used insolvent shell companies to mask a tax liability on its purchase of shares in drugmaker Bristol-Myers Squibb, according to a report by Reuters news agency.

The agreement is the latest settlement in a raft of lawsuits involving the litigation-ridden bank. Last month, Deutsche Bank cleared its biggest legal hurdle, agreeing to pay up $7.2 billion to resolve a U.S. Justice Department investigation into mortgage-backed securities.

That figure was half the $14 billion the United States initially sought in September to settle the claims. If approved, the agreement would allow the bank’s Chief Executive John Cryan some breathing room to focus on the bank’s future strategy instead of the mountain of legal cases that have weighed on the bank’s profits and shares.The bank still faces many other regulatory investigations and lawsuits, including a money-laundering investigation in Russia.

Wednesday, Handelsblatt learned from sources in the financial industry that Peter Hazlewood, the head of the bank’s internal unit tasked with fighting money laundering, would leave the lender after only 6 months on the job.It’s still unclear why exactly Deutsche has decided on a leadership change at its financial crime unit.