Five former Deutsche Bank employees have filed lawsuits in London’s High Court, alleging the German lender’s 2013 internal review contributed to wrongful blame and career damage linked to trades with Banca Monte dei Paschi di Siena between 2008 and 2012.

Court records show former head of structured trading Michele Foresti filed a case for commercial fraud on 30 September against four Deutsche Bank entities, according to filings reported by Reuters and Bloomberg. Four other ex‑employees — Ivor Dunbar, Michele Faissola, Marco Veroni and Matteo Vaghi — have also lodged claims, with people familiar saying the combined value may be in the hundreds of millions of pounds, the Financial Times reported. The filings for the four did not specify causes of action, and claimants have four months to serve their claims once filed.

The actions follow years of legal and reputational fallout from derivative deals that Italian prosecutors said helped Monte dei Paschi hide losses. The bankers were convicted in 2019 and acquitted in 2022 by an appeals court in Milan, with Italy’s Supreme Court upholding the acquittals in 2023.

The former staff contend that an internal audit overseen in 2013 by Christian Sewing, now Deutsche Bank’s chief executive officer, played a role in the initial convictions, though Sewing was not named as a defendant in the London filings. “Our extensive investigation of the facts has led us to believe that the bank and its senior management were engaged in very serious misconduct. As a result, we have filed proceedings on behalf of our clients,” said Khaled Khatoun, a partner at Quinn Emanuel Urquhart & Sullivan, which represents four of the claimants Deutsche Bank hit by London lawsuits from five former bankers.

Deutsche Bank rejected the claims. “As disclosed in our annual report, the bank has been aware that five individuals have threatened to file claims in the UK in the context of this matter. Deutsche Bank considers all such claims to be entirely without merit and will defend itself against them robustly,” the bank said, according to Reuters. In August, chair Alexander Wynaendts said: “The facts of this long‑standing matter are well known and have been discussed in detail over the past decade. The Supervisory Board supports the Management Board in defending the bank against this litigation,” Reuters reported.

The London suits follow a Frankfurt case by former manager Dario Schiraldi seeking €152 million in damages, arguing the audit harmed his reputation and earnings, as reported by Reuters. Monte dei Paschi settled its derivatives case in 2016 at a cost of €10.6 million, and defendants have denied wrongdoing.

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