Pomerantz LLP Achieves Significant Victory for Damaged Deutsche Bank AG Investors
In a significant victory for damaged Deutsche Bank AG investors, the bank has agreed to pay nearly $26.3 million to end a proposed class action against it on behalf of investors who acquired Deutsche Bank stock between March 14, 2017, and May 12, 2020. Pomerantz is sole lead counsel representing the putative class of plaintiffs in the litigation. The recovery represents approximately 49.4% of the likely recoverable damages in this case, which is well above the median recovery of 1.8% of estimated damages for all securities class actions settled in 2021. Plaintiffs have moved the court for approval of the settlement.
The complaint, filed in 2020, alleges that Deutsche Bank made materially false and misleading statements about its anti-money-laundering (“AML”) deficiencies and did not properly monitor customers it considered high risk, such as financier and accused sex offender Jeffrey Epstein. For example, defendants repeatedly assured investors that Deutsche Bank has “developed effective procedures for assessing clients (Know Your Customer or KYC) and a process for accepting new clients in order to facilitate comprehensive compliance,” and insisted that “[o]ur KYC procedures start with intensive checks before accepting a client and continue in the form of regular reviews.” Defendants also claimed Deutsche Bank’s “robust and strict” KYC program “includes strict identification requirements, name screening procedures and the ongoing monitoring and regular review of all existing business relationships,” with “[s]pecial safeguards . . . implemented for . . . politically exposed persons…”
In truth, however, far from implementing a “robust and strict” KYC program with “special safeguards” for politically exposed persons (“PEPs”), defendants repeatedly exempted high-net-worth individuals and PEPs from any meaningful due diligence, enabling their criminal activities through the use of the Bank’s facilities. For example, Deutsche Bank continued “business as usual” with Jeffrey Epstein even after learning that 40 underage girls had come forward with testimony that he had sexually assaulted them. Deutsche Bank’s former CEOs also onboarded, retained, and serviced Russian oligarchs and other clients reportedly engaged in criminal activities, including terrorism.
In making its case, Pomerantz received statements from eleven confidential witnesses, including multiple internal auditors.
In 2020, the media began to cover Deutsche Bank’s internal problems, including news of a harshly critical Federal Reserve report on the bank's anti-money laundering and control issues, a $150 million fine from New York state's financial regulator for AML misdeeds, and its Epstein relationship. According to a Bloomberg news article on July 16, 2020, Deutsche Bank, in a July 7 message to staff, stated that adding Epstein as a client in 2013 “was a critical mistake and should never have happened.” In response to these disclosures, Deutsche Bank's stock price dropped, wiping out millions of dollars in market capitalization.
According to Partner Emma Gilmore, who leads the litigation, “We are very pleased with the result achieved in this matter. The extraordinary 50% recovery the Firm achieved on behalf of Deutsche Bank’s investors should be a wake-up call for all corporations who choose to conduct business with unsavory characters. As a woman prosecuting the case against Deutsche Bank, this victory is all the more rewarding.”
Additional Pomerantz attorneys litigating this case are Jeremy A. Lieberman, Dolgora Dorzhieva, and Villi Shteyn. The case is Karimi et al. v. Deutsche Bank AG et al., No. 1:22-cv-02854, in the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of New York.