On Thursday morning, German police raided the Frankfurt headquarters of Deutsche Bank, President Donald Trump’s biggest lender, in connection with a money laundering investigation. The raid focused on an alleged money laundering operation that may have involved as much as $350 million and was exposed with the 2015 release of the Panama Papers—a trove of documents detailing the creation and use of offshore bank accounts. The investigation is the latest in a string of scandals and financial setbacks for the bank, which holds the mortgages on several of Trump’s most prized properties, including his Doral golf resort and his Washington, DC, luxury hotel. Speculation for months has swirled around the possibility that another company could take over the ailing bank—including rumors that the Industrial and Commercial Bank of China, a Chinese state-owned bank, might be interested. This is significant because any entity that controls a large chunk of Trump’s debt holds a certain amount of leverage over him—an unprecedented situation in the history of the US presidency.

Trump has a long relationship with Deutsche Bank dating back to the early 2000s. At the time, most US banks refused to loan money to Trump following his string of bankruptcies and Atlantic City failures. But Deutsche Bank continued to let him borrow hundreds of millions of dollars—as of his inauguration, Trump owed the German bank as much as $364 million. Once a powerful player in international banking, Deutsche Bank has paid out billions in settlements to both US and European regulators for its role in the 2008 financial crisis and other scandals. When Trump took office, he refused to divest from his company, meaning he continues to owe the bank money—several of the loans are personally guaranteed by the president—even as the Department of Justice has opened new investigations into the bank’s activities.

In 2017, the bank paid regulators $670 million in fines for its involvement with “mirror trades” in Russia—a complicated scheme to allegedly help wealthy sanctioned Russians move currency out of the country. Deutsche Bank is also embroiled in a scandal involving Danske Bank, a Danish company, which allegedly was involved in laundering billions of dollars from Russia. Danske is under heavy scrutiny from the Justice Department and European regulators, and Deutsche Bank has reportedly been contacted by US investigators for its role in handling some of Danske’s suspect transactions.

Thursday’s raid is not related to either of those scandals. In a statement, the bank confirmed it had been raided in connection with offshore transactions revealed in the Panama Papers, and said it is cooperating with the investigation.

The fines and ongoing controversies have sent Deutsche Bank into a financial tailspin and tanked its stock price, which in turn has raised the possibility of a takeover. In July, Deutsche Bank’s stock briefly rallied after it was reported by the German business press that JPMorgan and the Industrial and Commercial Bank of China were both interested in taking big stakes in the troubled bank. A scenario in which the Industrial and Commercial Bank of China, which is the country’s largest bank, took control of Trump’s mortgages would potentially pose an enormous conflict of interest for Trump, if not a national security threat. That said, the bank is already the single largest tenant in Trump Tower, and its lease is due to expire in October 2019, setting up another major conflict.

Even as it stands, Deutsche Bank’s ownership is rife with conflict of interest landmines for the president. Currently, Chinese financial giant HNA Group, which has sparred with American regulators, owns 8 percent of the German bank—though it is under pressure to sell that piece. American hedge fund Cerberus Capital—co-founded by Stephen Feinberg, a major Trump donor whom the president appointed to head his intelligence advisory board— owns another 3 percent.

The White House did not return a request for comment on whether the administration has any plans for how to handle conflict of interest concerns if Deutsche Bank is taken over.</s>German police raided Deutsche Bank's offices in Frankfurt on Thursday in a probe of money laundering against the country's flagship lender. Two Deutsche Bank staff members are suspected of helping clients set up off-shore businesses to launder money gained from criminal deeds. Some 170 police officers, prosecutors and tax inspectors searched six of Deutsche Bank's offices Thursday morning, Frankfurt's public prosecutor's office said in a statement. Numerous written and electronic business documents were seized, it added.

A police officer passes a gate outside the headquarters of Deutsche Bank AG in Frankfurt, Germany, on Thursday, Nov. 29, 2018. Andreas Arnold | Bloomberg | Getty Images

"We confirm that police are currently investigating our bank at various locations in Germany. The investigation concerns the Panama Papers," Deutsche Bank said in a statement, according to a CNBC translation. "We will share more details as soon as we have them and we will cooperate with authorities," the bank added. Shares of the bank slipped toward the bottom of the European benchmark on the news, down 3.4 percent at 4.45 p.m. London time (11.45 a.m. ET).

Panama Papers

The public prosecutor's office in Frankfurt said an evaluation of data from the Panama Papers had triggered suspicion that the bank may have helped customers create offshore companies in tax havens around the world. In 2016 alone, more than 900 customers with a business volume of 311 million euros ($353.6 million) were thought to have been cared for by a Deutsche Bank subsidiary based in the British Virgin Islands, the prosecutor said. "We thought that we had provided to the authorities all the relevant information regarding Panama Papers and of course we will now cooperate closely with the prosecutors here in Frankfurt. … As it is also in our interest to clarify the facts as soon as possible," Joerg Eigendorf, global head of communications at Deutsche Bank, told CNBC's Annette Weisbach on Thursday.</s>Berlin (AP) — Some 170 police officers, investigators and prosecutors raided the German offices of Deutsche Bank on Thursday on the suspicion bank employees helped clients set up offshore companies in tax havens to launder hundreds of millions of euros.

The investigation emerged from an analysis of documents leaked from tax havens in recent years, including the 2016 “Panama Papers,” said Frankfurt prosecutors’ spokeswoman Nadja Niesen.

It is focused on two Deutsche Bank employees, aged 50 and 46, and possibly other not-yet identified suspects, she said. Starting at 10 a.m. locally, officers swooped on six buildings in Frankfurt, where Deutsche Bank has its headquarters, as well as premises — including at least one suspect’s home — in nearby Eschborn and Gross-Umstadt.

Niesen said the analysis of the Panama Papers and other documents “gave rise to suspicion that Deutsche Bank was helping clients set up so-called offshore companies in tax havens and the proceeds of crimes were transferred there from Deutsche Bank accounts” without the bank reporting it.

In 2016 alone, more than 900 customers are alleged to have transferred some 311 million euros to one such company set up in the British Virgin Islands, she said.

The suspects, both German citizens, are accused of failing to report the suspicious transactions even though there was “sufficient evidence” to have been aware of it.

Deutsche Bank confirmed the search and said “the investigation has to do with the Panama Papers case.”

“More details will be communicated as soon as these become known. We are cooperating fully with the authorities,” the bank said.

Money laundering has become a growing problem in Europe, where a series of scandals has exposed lax regulation.

And it’s not the first time Deutsche Bank has run into trouble over the flow of dirty money.

It was fined more than $600 million by U.S. and U.K. authorities in January 2017 for allowing customers to transfer $10 billion out of Russia in what regulators said was “highly suggestive of financial crime.”

The Panama Papers are a trove of documents from a law firm that handled shell companies for thousands of the rich and powerful around the world. While owning a shell company is not illegal, it is used to hide the beneficial owner of a company or transfer, making it important for the handling and laundering of dirty money.

Several other institutions besides Deutsche Bank have been fined by authorities in the U.S. and Europe for not properly checking up on the beneficial owners of shell companies that send money through their accounts.

Analysts say that because these transactions can be lucrative, banks have few incentives to do more than the minimum required by law to check on the identity of a bank.

Most recently, Denmark’s biggest bank, Danske Bank, admitted that some 200 billion euros in suspicious money had flown through its Estonian branch from 2007 to 2015. Whistleblower and former employee Howard Wilkinson has indicated that Danske Bank’s management was aware of what was going on at the branch, which was among the bank’s most profitable units. He has also alleged that family members of Russian President Vladimir Putin and Russia’s spy agency were using the bank for money laundering. The bank’s CEO has since stepped down over the scandal.

Another Baltic state, Latvia, has also emerged as a major hub of money laundering, with a 2014 leak showing that tens of billions of dollars were funneled from Russia in 2010-14. Some of the money reportedly went through Deutsche Bank and ended up in major capitals like London, according to The Organized Crime and Corruption Reporting Project.

There was no indication that Thursday’s raid was linked to that scandal, though Deutsche Bank says that it has since stopped providing dollar transactions in some countries, including Latvia.</s>Around 170 police officers, prosecutors and tax inspectors searched six Deutsche Bank offices in and around Frankfurt on Thursday over money laundering allegations, the Frankfurt public prosecutor's office said in a statement.

Around 170 police officers, prosecutors and tax inspectors searched six Deutsche Bank offices in and around Frankfurt on Thursday over money laundering allegations, the Frankfurt public prosecutor's office said in a statement.

Investigators are looking into the activities of two Deutsche Bank staff members who are alleged to have helped clients set up off-shore firms to launder money, the prosecutor's office said.

Written and electronic business documents were seized from Deutsche Bank and further investigations are ongoing, the prosecutor's office also said.

Deutsche Bank confirmed the search of its offices and said it was fully cooperating with the authorities.

The bank's shares were down 2.7pc by 0953 GMT.

The investigation was triggered after investigators reviewed so-called "Offshore-Leaks" and "Panama Papers", the prosecutor said.

The Panama Papers, which consist of millions of documents from Panamanian law firm Mossack Fonseca, were leaked to the media in April 2016.

Several Banks, including Swedish lenders Nordea and Handelsbanken have already been fined by financial regulators for violating money laundering rules as a result of the papers.

The prosecutors said they are looking at whether Deutsche Bank may have assisted clients to set up "Offshore-Companies" in tax havens so that funds transferred to accounts at Deutsche Bank could skirt anti-money laundering safeguards.

In 2016 alone, over 900 customers were served by a Deutsche Bank subsidiary registered on the British Virgin Islands, generating a volume of €311m, the prosecutors said.

They also said Deutsche Bank employees are alleged to have breached their duties by neglecting to report money laundering suspicions about clients and offshore companies involved in tax evasion schemes.

The investigation is separate from another money laundering scandal surrounding Danish lender Danske Bank, where Deutsche Bank is involved.

Denmark's state prosecutor on Wednesday filed preliminary charges against Danske for alleged violations of the country's anti-money laundering act in relation to its Estonian branch.

Danske is under investigation for suspicious payments totalling €200bn from 2007 onwards and a source with direct knowledge of the case has told Reuters Deutsche Bank helped to process the bulk of the payments.

A Deutsche Bank executive director has said the lender played only a secondary role as a so-called correspondent bank to Danske Bank, limiting what it needed to know about the people behind the transactions.</s>The headquarters of Germany's Deutsche Bank was raided on Thursday amid allegations of money laundering linked to the Panama Papers leak.

Prosecutors have accused two of the bank's staff of helping to launder money obtained through criminal activity.

In total around 170 police officers raided six properties belonging to the bank and seized electronic and paper documents.

The Panama Papers were a leak of millions of financial documents obtained from Panamanian law firm Mossack Fonseca which were leaked to the press in 2016.

They contained evidence of widespread abuse of the global financial system including tax avoidance and evasion by celebrities, politicians and corporations.

Prosecutors said that, as a result of the leak, they are looking at whether Deutsche Bank assisted clients to set up offshore companies in tax havens so that funds transferred to their bank accounts could skirt anti-money laundering safeguards.

In 2016 alone, over 900 customers were served by a Deutsche Bank subsidiary registered on the British Virgin Islands, generating a volume of 311million euros, the prosecutors said.

Lawyers added that Deutsche Bank employees are alleged to have breached their duties by neglecting to report money laundering suspicions about clients and offshore companies involved in tax evasion schemes.

This investigation is separate to another Panama Papers probe which also involves Deutsche Bank.

In that case, prosecutors are investigating whether Danish lender Danske Bank violated anti-laundering laws by funneling more than £200billion in payments through its Estonian branch.

Sources have told Reuters that Deutsche Bank helped process the majority of those payments.

A Deutsche Bank executive director has said the lender played only a secondary role as a so-called correspondent bank to Danske Bank.

Speaking about the latest investigation, a Deutsche Bank spokesman said: 'Of course, we will cooperate closely with the public prosecutor's office in Frankfurt, as it is in our interest as well to clarify the facts.'

The news comes as Deutsche Bank tries to repair its tattered reputation after three years of losses and a drumbeat of financial and regulatory scandals.

Christian Sewing was appointed as chief executive in April to help the bank to rebuild. He trimmed U.S. operations and reshuffled the management board but revenue has continued to slip.

Deutsche Bank shares were down more than 3 per cent by midday on Thursday and have lost almost half their value this year.

Deutsche and Danske banks are not the first to be stung following revelations contained within the Panama Papers.

Scandinavian lenders Nordea and Handelsbanken have already been fined by regulators for violating money laundering rules.

Weaknesses in Deutsche Bank's controls that aim to prevent money laundering have caught the attention of regulators on both sides of the Atlantic.

The bank has publicly said that it agreed it needed to improve its processes to properly identify clients.

In September, Germany's financial watchdog - BaFin - ordered Deutsche Bank to do more to prevent money laundering and 'terrorist financing,' and appointed KPMG as third party to assess progress.

In August, Reuters reported that Deutsche Bank had uncovered further shortcomings in its ability to fully identify clients and the source of their wealth.

Last year, Deutsche Bank was fined nearly $700million for allowing money laundering through artificial trades between Moscow, London and New York.

An investigation by the U.S. Department of Justice is still ongoing.

Deutsche Bank has been under pressure after annual losses, and it agreed to pay a $7.2 billion settlement with U.S. authorities last year over its sale of toxic mortgage securities in the run-up to the 2008 financial crisis.</s>FRANKFURT (Reuters) - Roughly 170 criminal police officers, prosecutors and tax inspectors on Thursday searched six Deutsche Bank (DBKGn.DE) offices in and around Frankfurt on money laundering allegations, the Frankfurt public prosecutor’s office said in a statement.

Investigators are probing the activities of two Deutsche Bank staff members who are alleged to have helped clients set up off-shore firms to launder money, the prosecutor’s office said.

Written and electronic business documents were seized from Deutsche Bank and further investigations are ongoing, it added.

Deutsche Bank confirmed the search, adding that it is fully cooperating with the authorities.

A deeper probe of the bank was triggered after investigators reviewed so-called “Offshore-Leaks” and “Panama Papers”, the prosecutor said.

The so-called Panama Papers, which consist of millions of documents from Panamanian law firm Mossack Fonseca, were leaked to the media in April 2016.

Several Banks including Swedish lenders Nordea and Handelsbanken have already been fined by financial regulators for violating money laundering rules as a result of the papers.

Prosecutors are probing whether Deutsche Bank may have assisted clients to set up “Offshore-Companies” in tax havens so that funds transferred to accounts at Deutsche Bank could skirt anti money laundering safeguards.

In 2016 alone, over 900 customers were served by a Deutsche Bank subsidiary registered on the British Virgin Islands, generating a volume of 311 million euros.

The Deutsche Bank employees are accused of having breached their duties by neglecting to report money laundering suspicions about clients and offshore companies involved in tax evasion schemes, the prosecutors said.</s>German authorities have searched the headquarters of Deutsche Bank in Frankfurt and other offices on the suspicion that bank employees helped clients set up offshore companies in tax havens to launder hundreds of millions of euros.

Frankfurt prosecutors’ spokeswoman Nadja Niesen said the investigation was focused on two Deutsche Bank employees, aged 50 and 46, and possibly other not-yet-identified suspects.

Some 170 prosecutors, state police, national police and tax investigators were involved in the morning searches of six buildings in Frankfurt, and in nearby Eschborn and Gross-Umstadt, Ms Niesen said.

The investigation was launched after evaluation of the explosive Panama Papers tax haven revelations and the previous Offshore Leaks report of offshore bank accounts, she said. Police officers at Deutsche Bank headquarters during a raid in Frankfurt (Michael Probst/AP)

The analysis “gave rise to suspicions that Deutsche Bank was helping clients set up so-called offshore companies in tax havens and the proceeds of crimes were transferred there from Deutsche Bank accounts” without the bank reporting it.

In 2016 alone, more than 900 customers are alleged to have transferred some â¬311m to one such company set up in the British Virgin Islands, she said.

The suspects are accused of failing to report the suspicious transactions even though there was “sufficient evidence” to have been aware of it.

Deutsche Bank confirmed that authorities were “conducting an investigation at a number of our offices in Germany”.

“The investigation has to do with the Panama Papers case,” the bank said.

“More details will be communicated as soon as these become known. We are co-operating fully with the authorities.”</s>FRANFURT AM MAIN: German prosecutors raided several Deutsche Bank offices in the Frankfurt area on Thursday over suspicions of money laundering based on revelations from the 2016 “Panama Papers” data leak. Prosecutors said they were investigating allegations that Germany’s biggest lender helped clients set up offshore companies in tax havens to “transfer money from criminal activities” to Deutsche Bank accounts.

 The latest raid was a new blow to the financial institution that has been hammered by a string of scandals linked to its pre-2008 crisis attempts to compete with Wall Street investment banking giants.

 Some 170 police officers and investigators from the Frankfurt prosecutor’s office were searching six of the bank’s premises in and around the city, the prosecutors said in a statement.

 Deutsche Bank said it was “fully cooperating” with the authorities on the case which it said was “related to the Panama Papers”.

 The Panama Papers scandal that erupted in 2016 with a massive data leak from Panamaian legal firm Mossack Fonseca exposed large-scale tax evasion, laying bare how the world’s wealthy and powerful stashed their assets in offshore businesses.

 Deutsche Bank was among hundreds of financial institutions whose names cropped up in the media reports.

 The Frankfurt prosecutors said their probe was focusing on two Deutsche Bank employees aged 50 and 46, as well as several unnamed senior staff members.

 Based on information from the Panama Papers, they are accused of “failing to report suspicions of money laundering” linked to offshore firms involved in tax evasion “even though there was sufficient evidence” to suggest illegal activity, prosecutors said.

 Prosecutor Nadja Niesen said one of Deutsche Bank’s offshore branches one the British Virgin Islands handled transaction volumes worth 311 million euros ($354 million) for more than 900 clients.

 “There is currently suspicion that most of the money stems from foreign tax offences.”

 Shares in Deutsche Bank were down 3.4 per cent at 8.30 euros in the early afternoon, making them the worst performing stock on the DAX blue-chip index.

 The raids are the latest embarrassment for embattled Deutsche Bank, which has repeatedly been rapped by regulators for lax money laundering controls.

 Markus Meinzer, director of the Financial Secrecy Tax Justice Network, said the “raid is long overdue because the Panama Papers have amply illustrated how offshore law firms cooperated with banks in setting up structures with one single aim: to help clients hide their true identities.”

 “As banks in Germany manage roughly three trillion euros of interest yielding assets, the potential for abuse is enormous… Germany owes to the world to clamp down on this dark side of its economy.”

 In September, Germany’s financial supervisor BaFin took the unusual step of embedding auditors from KPMG at Deutsche to monitor the bank’s progress in battling illegal transactions such as money laundering, terrorist financing and dealings with organised crime. — AFP</s>Police raided six Deutsche Bank offices in and around Frankfurt on Thursday over money laundering allegations linked to the “Panama Papers,” the public prosecutor’s office in Germany’s financial capital said.

Investigators are looking into the activities of two unnamed Deutsche Bank employees alleged to have helped clients set up offshore firms to launder money, the prosecutor’s office said.

Around 170 police officers, prosecutors and tax inspectors searched the offices, where written and electronic business documents were seized.

“Of course, we will cooperate closely with the public prosecutor’s office in Frankfurt, as it is in our interest as well to clarify the facts,” Deutsche Bank said, adding it believed it had already provided all the relevant information related to the “Panama Papers.”

The news comes as Deutsche Bank tries to repair its tattered reputation after three years of losses and a drumbeat of financial and regulatory scandals.

Christian Sewing was appointed chief executive in April to help the bank rebuild. He trimmed US operations and reshuffled the management board, but revenue has continued to slip.

Deutsche Bank shares were down more than 3 percent by 7:20 a.m. ET and have lost almost half their value this year.

The investigation was triggered after investigators reviewed so-called “Offshore-Leaks” and “Panama Papers,” the prosecutor said.

The “Panama Papers,” which consist of millions of documents from Panamanian law firm Mossack Fonseca, were leaked to the media in April 2016.

The prosecutors said they are looking at whether Deutsche Bank may have assisted clients to set up offshore companies in tax havens so that funds transferred to accounts at Deutsche Bank could skirt anti-money laundering safeguards.

In 2016 alone, over 900 customers were served by a Deutsche Bank subsidiary registered in the British Virgin Islands, generating a volume of 311 million euros ($354 million), the prosecutors said.

They also said Deutsche Bank employees are alleged to have breached their duties by neglecting to report money laundering suspicions about clients and offshore companies involved in tax evasion schemes.

The investigation is separate from another money laundering scandal surrounding Danish lender Danske Bank, where Deutsche Bank is involved.</s>FRANKFURT (Reuters) - Police raided six Deutsche Bank (DBKGn.DE) offices in and around Frankfurt on Thursday over money laundering allegations linked to the “Panama Papers”, the public prosecutor’s office in Germany’s financial capital said.

Investigators are looking into the activities of two unnamed Deutsche Bank employees alleged to have helped clients set up offshore firms to launder money, the prosecutor’s office said.

Around 170 police officers, prosecutors and tax inspectors searched the offices where written and electronic business documents were seized.

“Of course, we will cooperate closely with the public prosecutor’s office in Frankfurt, as it is in our interest as well to clarify the facts,” Deutsche Bank said, adding it believed it had already provided all the relevant information related to the “Panama Papers”.

The news comes as Deutsche Bank tries to repair its tattered reputation after three years of losses and a drumbeat of financial and regulatory scandals.

Christian Sewing was appointed as chief executive in April to help the bank to rebuild. He trimmed U.S. operations and reshuffled the management board but revenue has continued to slip.

Deutsche Bank shares were down more than 3 percent by 1220 GMT and have lost almost half their value this year.

The investigation was triggered after investigators reviewed so-called “Offshore-Leaks” and “Panama Papers”, the prosecutor said.

The “Panama Papers”, which consist of millions of documents from Panamanian law firm Mossack Fonseca, were leaked to the media in April 2016.

Several banks, including Scandinavian lenders Nordea and Handelsbanken have already been fined by regulators for violating money laundering rules as a result of the papers.

The prosecutors said they are looking at whether Deutsche Bank may have assisted clients to set up offshore companies in tax havens so that funds transferred to accounts at Deutsche Bank could skirt anti-money laundering safeguards.

In 2016 alone, over 900 customers were served by a Deutsche Bank subsidiary registered on the British Virgin Islands, generating a volume of 311 million euros, the prosecutors said.

They also said Deutsche Bank employees are alleged to have breached their duties by neglecting to report money laundering suspicions about clients and offshore companies involved in tax evasion schemes.

The investigation is separate from another money laundering scandal surrounding Danish lender Danske Bank (DANSKE.CO), where Deutsche Bank is involved.

Danske is under investigation for suspicious payments totaling 200 billion euros from 2007 onwards and a source with direct knowledge of the case has told Reuters Deutsche Bank helped to process the bulk of the payments.

A Deutsche Bank executive director has said the lender played only a secondary role as a so-called correspondent bank to Danske Bank, limiting what it needed to know about the people behind the transactions.

Weaknesses in Deutsche Bank’s controls that aim to prevent money laundering have caught the attention of regulators on both sides of the Atlantic. The bank has publicly said that it agreed it needed to improve its processes to properly identify clients.

In September, Germany’s financial watchdog - BaFin - ordered Deutsche Bank to do more to prevent money laundering and “terrorist financing,” and appointed KPMG as third party to assess progress.

In August, Reuters reported that Deutsche Bank had uncovered further shortcomings in its ability to fully identify clients and the source of their wealth.

Last year, Deutsche Bank was fined nearly $700 million for allowing money laundering through artificial trades between Moscow, London and New York. An investigation by the U.S. Department of Justice is still ongoing.

Deutsche Bank has been under pressure after annual losses, and it agreed to pay a $7.2 billion settlement with U.S. authorities last year over its sale of toxic mortgage securities in the run-up to the 2008 financial crisis.
German police raid Deutsche Bank's offices in Frankfurt in connection with money laundering allegations that two staff members helped clients set up off-shore businesses as tax havens. Police officers, prosecutors and tax inspectors search six of the bank's offices and seize numerous written and electronic business documents. Deutsche Bank says the investigation stems from the 2016 Panama Papers leak.