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. 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. 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. 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. 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. 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 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. 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.
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.