Deutsche Bank to pay $554m to settle US tax shelter fraud case
DEUTSCHE Bank admitted criminal wrongdoing for taking part in fraudulent tax shelters that let clients hide billions of dollars, and agreed to pay $553.6m (£357.6m) to settle the case, US prosecutors said yesterday.
Deutsche Bank said it had already set aside money to cover the fine and that it will not affect profits.
The settlement is part of a larger US government effort to crack down on banks that help Americans evade taxes.
Prosecutors last year settled with Swiss bank UBS, which paid $780m in fines for helping clients with roughly $20bn in assets hide their accounts from the US Internal Revenue Service (IRS). The Deutsche Bank fine represents the fees the bank earned setting up tax shelters, the taxes and interest the IRS was not able to collect and a civil penalty of $149.8m.