Photo Gallery Deutsche Bank Under Fire
Last week, authorities raided the headquarters of Deutsche Bank in Frankfurt on suspicion of tax fraud. The case is just the latest in a series of scandals that has washed over Germany's biggest bank in recent months. Deutsche Bank's reputation is at stake.
Co-CEO Jürgen Fitschen is at the center of the tax probe and stands accused of having signed a questionable tax return several years ago. The case is related to suspicious trades involving CO2 emissions certificates and dubious companies with which Deutsche Bank made those trades.
The bank is worried that such images, of police in the bank's lobby last week, will harm its image. Co-CEO Fitschen called the governor of the state of Hesse immediately following the raid to complain.
Even though co-CEO Anshu Jain is not specifically implicated in any of the current cases against Deutsche Bank, the investment sector that he ran for many years is deeply involved. Bank leaders are worried that both CEOs, though they just took over leadership of the bank in June, are tainted.
The bank's supervisory board chose Fitschen to join Jain at the top for his reputation for steadfastness and reliability. Now, that reputation could be damaged.
Authorities say that Deutsche Bank should have realized that the emissions certificate trades it undertook in 2009 were questionable. Many of the companies involved in the trades were shell companies.
Chief Financial Officer Stefan Krause is also among those suspected of wrongdoing. Five other bank employees were even arrested and held in pre-trial detention.
Fitchen and Jain have pledged a new era for Deutsche Bank and have said that many of the legal difficulties it is now facing stem from the period when Josef Ackermann led the bank. Now, though, much of the bank's new management is implicated in several of the affairs.
Among the accusations that have been levelled at the bank are charges that it misled investors in the years preceeding the financial crisis. Here, a demonstrator attends the bank's annual press conference, held this year in February.
