Deutsche Bank: former managers sue the bank for €850m in Mps case

Compensation for damages totalling approximately EUR 850 million. This is what a group of former Deutsche Bank executives are demanding from the German bank, which they accuse of failing to defend them adequately in a criminal trial in Italia in the Mps affair.

Four former Deutsche Bank employees are demanding more than £600m (around €700m) in compensation from the German bank for alleged career damage linked to the Banca Monte dei Paschi di Siena case. The claim emerges from the institution's annual report, as reported by the Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung. The former bankers filed the lawsuits last autumn before the English courts, claiming that involvement in the investigations and trials into the MPS case would have damaged their professional reputation and career prospects. The German bank rejects the allegations. "Deutsche Bank considers these lawsuits to be unfounded and will defend itself vigorously, also contesting the claimed losses, which are considered excessive and unrealistic," the group said.

The claim of the four former employees is joined by a fifth banker, who has filed a separate lawsuit before the Frankfurt court claiming EUR 152 million in damages. The hearing is scheduled for September. The dispute stems from some financial transactions concluded in 2008 between Deutsche Bank and Banca Monte dei Paschi di Siena, linked to the crisis of the Sienese bank. In 2019, the Milan court had convicted five former employees and a manager then in charge of the German institution of conspiracy in false accounting and market manipulation. However, the sentence was overturned on appeal in 2022, with the acquittal of all defendants, a decision later upheld in 2023 by the Italian Court of Cassation. The former bankers claim, however, that the lengthy court proceedings and first instance conviction caused serious damage to their professional careers.