(Bloomberg) -- Deutsche Bank AG and its asset management unit had their Frankfurt offices raided by police, adding to the legal headaches facing Germany’s largest lender.
Law enforcement officials on Tuesday morning entered the twin towers where Germany’s largest lender is headquartered, as well as the nearby premises of DWS Group, according to a statement from the prosecutor. The search is related to accusations of greenwashing against the asset manager.
“We have continuously cooperated fully with all relevant regulators and authorities on this matter and will continue to do so,” a spokesman for DWS said in response to questions. A spokesperson for Deutsche Bank declined to comment.
DWS has been facing the allegations since its former chief sustainability officer, Desiree Fixler, went public with them in August, prompting regulatory probes in the US and Germany. While DWS has denied the claims, the raid adds to a list of regulatory and legal issues for Deutsche Bank Chief Executive Officer Christian Sewing just as he emerges from a successful turnaround of the lender.
DWS shares fell as much as 4.6% on the news and Deutsche Bank declined as much as 2.3%.
Among other things, Fixler has said that DWS’s claims that hundreds of billions of its assets under management were “ESG integrated” were misleading because the label didn’t translate into meaningful action by relevant fund managers. DWS has since stopped using the label.
DWS CEO Asoka Woehrmann fired Fixler in March last year, saying in a memo to staff that her unit hadn’t made enough progress. She sued for unfair dismissal but lost the case before a Frankfurt labor court in January.
The raid comes about a month after Deutsche Bank’s headquarters were searched over suspicions that it was too late in reporting potential money laundering. While Sewing has long sought to shake off Deutsche Bank’s past of heavy fines and mend relationships with regulators, a number of new issues have popped up since he took office four years ago.
The bank recently was found in breach of a deferred prosecution agreement with the U.S. Department of Justice, and it received a scathing letter from the U.S. Federal Reserve over deficient controls last year.
Deutsche Bank is also investigating the use of a private email account by Woehrmann while he was negotiating an acquisition for the bank a few years ago. German watchdog BaFin has initiated a probe of Deutsche Bank over private communications and the lender is facing a similar investigation in the US, Bloomberg has reported.
(Updates with confirmation from prosecutor in second paragraph, DWS comment in third, context on the allegations from fifth.)
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