DB - Some Deutsche Bank employees allegedly broke bank's rules on cum-ex trading - FT

More than 70 current and former Deutsche Bank ( NYSE: DB ) employees are being investigated by German public prosecutors in Cologne who seek to shed light on the bank's exposure to a multibillion-euro "cum-ex" tax fraud scheme, the Financial Times reported , citing an internal investigation that started in 2015.

The probe is part of Cologne public prosecutors' broader investigation into that is looking at Barclays ( BCS ), Macquarie ( OTCPK:MCQEF ), and UniCredit's ( OTCPK:UNCFF ) ( OTCPK:UNCRY ) HypoVereinsbank's alleged involvement in the scheme, FT said. The banks' clients allegedly profited from share deals executed before and after a stock's dividend payment and led governments to reimburse taxes that were never actually paid, the article said.

According to Deutsche Bank's ( DB ) internal investigation conducted by law firm Freshfields, the bank's London-based investment bankers skirted the company's own policies against the so-called "cum-ex" activities. The report found that Germany's largest lender took in millions of euros by knowingly providing investment banking services to clients who specialized in cum-ex trading. In Germany's highest court ruled in 2021 that cum-ex transactions were always fraudulent and dismissed dissenting opinions, the FT said.

Deutsche Bank ( DB ), Freshfields, Barclays ( BCS ), Macquarie ( OTCPK:MCQEF ), and UniCredit ( OTCPK:UNCFF ) ( OTCPK:UNCRY ) did not immediately respond to requests from Seeking Alpha for comment.

In 2019, M.M. Warburg & Co., a private bank, sued Deutsche Bank ( DB ) over a tax bill it received related to cum-ex transactions.

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