Deutsche Bank spying scandal claims first scalps as shadow hangs over bank
DEUTSCHE Bank has sacked two senior managers, according to sources, as it faces a possible probe by state prosecutors into a surveillance affair at Germany’s biggest bank.
The bank yesterday said it was waiting for the outcome of its own investigation and declined to comment further on the surveillance of a non-executive director or the alleged monitoring of a critical shareholder and a journalist.
The affair strikes a raw nerve in a country still struggling to come to terms with its past and where spying on citizens was commonplace in the Communist East.
Earlier in the week, state prosecutors said they were considering mounting an investigation that would come on top of the probe by German banks watchdog Bafin into whether Deutsche Bank spied on people it deemed to be troublemakers.
Separately, a source with direct knowledge of the matter said Deutsche’s investor relations chief, Wolfram Schmitt, and its head of security in Germany Rafael Schenz were no longer working with the bank.
Schmitt declined to comment. Schenz did not return calls seeking comment.
It is the latest development in an affair, which has prompted chief executive Josef Ackermann to hire a law firm to conduct an investigation that he will personally oversee.