(Frankfurt) German justice announced on Friday that it had raided the headquarters of the country’s first bank Deutsche Bank, in Frankfurt, in a money laundering investigation which could concern the family of Bashar al-Assad, according to the Handelsblatt.
Posted at 2:21 p.m.
“Officials from the Federal Criminal Police (BKA), the BaFin (financial supervisor) and the Frankfurt public prosecutor’s office are deployed” in the premises, the local public prosecutor’s office said.
This measure is “in connection with statements on suspicion of money laundering”, indicated for its part the bank, adding that it “cooperates fully with the authorities”.
In such cases, the authorities seek to know whether the suspicious transaction reports were sent in time, which may otherwise constitute a breach liable to prosecution.
Contacted, the Bafin refused to comment on the present search. The authority had reminded the Frankfurt establishment in 2021 to redouble its efforts in the fight against money laundering.
According to the German newspaper Handelsblattthe searches are said to be linked to transactions carried out “a few years ago” by a member of the family of Syrian leader Bashar al-Assad.
It would be the former Syrian vice-president Rifaat al Assad, an uncle of Bashar al-Assad, several people familiar with the matter told the economic newspaper.
The latter would certainly not have been a client of Deutsche Bank, but the Frankfurt financial institution would have participated in the processing of payments from relatives of Mr. Assad as part of its “correspondent banking” activities.
Deutsche Bank had already been visited by investigators at its headquarters in 2019 on the basis of allegedly insufficient reports of suspicion of money laundering and concerning the Danish bank Danske Bank, at the heart of a money laundering case of around 200 billion. euros between 2007 and 2015, via its Estonian subsidiary.
The bank subsequently agreed to pay a fine of 13.5 million euros for delaying making these declarations, as part of an administrative infringement procedure launched by the Frankfurt public prosecutor’s office.
On the Frankfurt Stock Exchange, the title Deutsche Bank, which sailed in the green since the opening, yielded 1.8% to 9.45 euros after the announcement of this search.