Deutsche Bank, whose offices were raided by German police four days ago, said it will investigate prosecutors’ allegations that employees deleted emails requested as part of a tax-evasion inquiry.
The accusations, which prompted the arrest of five people for questioning, will be investigated by the bank, Christian Streckert, a spokesman for the lender, said. Deutsche Bank’s co-chief executive officer Jürgen Fitschen called Volker Bouffier, the prime minister of the state of Hesse, to complain about the impact television pictures of the raids would have on the bank’s reputation, Der Spiegel said. Mr Bouffier replied that it wasn’t his task to intervene in a prosecutorial investigation, the magazine reported.
“We confirm that Mr Fitschen called Mr Bouffier,” Mr Streckert said. “We cannot comment on the content of the conversation.”
Prosecutors had been investigating bank employees for suspected tax fraud involving the sale of carbon-emission certificates since 2009. The Frankfurt prosecutor said on December 12th that the bank may have withheld evidence it was seeking.
After an initial raid in 2010, Deutsche Bank was asked to hand over information about 40 employees, Der Spiegel said. The bank deleted 20,000 emails and handed over no emails relating to nine of the employees, the magazine said.
Mr Streckert declined to comment further on the emails. Four bank employees remain in custody while the inquiry continues. In all, 25 Deutsche Bank employees are being investigated, including Mr Fitschen and chief financial officer Stefan Krause, according to prosecutors. Prosecutors are focusing on the alleged email deletions, the person said. – (Bloomberg)
