Deutsche Bank settles €152m lawsuit with former banker for undisclosed amount

Deutsche Bank has confirmed it has settled a lawsuit with a former banker who alleged the bank had unfairly passed the blame for an Italian accounting scandal for an undisclosed sum.

Dario Schiraldi was one of six former employees of the lender who filed a suit against Deutsche Bank over alleged damage to their reputations after being convicted in 2019 of aiding and abetting false accounting and market manipulation at Italy’s Monte dei Paschi di Siena.

The bankers were acquitted on appeal in 2022, and all pursued legal action against the bank. A Frankfurt court, scheduled to hear Schiraldi’s case beginning Thursday, confirmed that he had withdrawn the case.

“The parties have now resolved on a confidential basis all of the claims and allegations that Mr. Schiraldi has previously made against Deutsche Bank and its personnel,” Deutsche Bank said in a statement, adding that it would only have “a small financial impact” on its third-quarter earnings.

Deutsche Bank has now settled with two of the six plaintiffs, but is still being sued for a total of more than £600 million in a London court. The bank has previously described the cases as “without merit,” according to Reuters, adding that it “will defend itself against them robustly, including disputing the inflated, unrealistic alleged losses”.

The original case stems from derivatives deals between Deutsche Bank and Monte dei Paschi in 2008. The German lender launched an internal investigation in 2013, overseen by then-head of the audit division Christian Sewing, now Deutsche Bank’s chief executive.

A key claim of the plaintiff’s case is that Sewing and Deutsche Bank scapegoated the bankers and later failed to set the record straight, according to Reuters.

Deutsche declined to comment on the Schiraldi case to the newswire on Monday, but said last year that the allegations were “false” and that executives involved had “discharged their responsibilities appropriately”.

This is the second major fraud case involving Deutsche Bank in recent weeks. In late August, a private banker formerly employed by the lender was charged with embezzlement of more than €600,000 from wealthy clients for derivatives speculation.



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