Pomerantz LLP Appointed Lead Counsel in Deutsche Bank Aktiengesellschaft Securities Litigation
On October 4, 2016, Pomerantz LLP was appointed Lead Counsel in a class action lawsuit on behalf of Deutsche Bank Aktiengesellschaft shareholders (“Deutsche Bank” or the “Company”) and certain of its officers. The class action, filed in United States District Court, Southern District of New York, and docketed under 16-cv-03539, is on behalf of a class consisting of all persons or entities who purchased or otherwise acquired Deutsche Bank securities between April 15, 2013 and April 29, 2016 inclusive (the “Class Period”). This class action seeks to recover damages against Defendants for alleged violations of the federal securities laws under the Securities Exchange Act of 1934.
Deutsche Bank provides investment, financial, and related products and services worldwide.
The complaint alleges that throughout the Class Period, Defendants made materially false and misleading statements regarding the Company’s business, operational and compliance policies. Specifically, Defendants made false and/or misleading statements and/or failed to disclose that: (1) Deutsche Bank has serious and systemic failings in its controls against financing terrorism, money laundering, aiding against international sanctions, and committing financial crimes; (2) Deutsche Bank’s internal control over financial reporting and its disclosure controls and procedures were not effective; and (3) as a result, Deutsche Bank’s public statements were materially false and misleading at all relevant times.
On July 22, 2014, The Wall Street Journal published an article entitled “Deutsche Bank Suffers From Litany of Reporting Problems, Regulators Said”, stating that the Federal Reserve Bank of New York found that the Company’s U.S. operations suffered from a litany of serious financial-reporting problems that the Company had known about for years but not fixed.
On this news, shares of Deutsche Bank fell $1.05 per share or approximately 3% from its previous closing price to close at $34.80 per share on July 22, 2014, damaging investors.
Over the next two years, more compliance issues at Deutsche Bank came to light, as media outlets and the Company reported investigations by regulators and an internal probe by Deutsche Bank into possible money laundering by Russian clients, causing Deutsche Bank’s share price to fall and damaging investors. Finally, on May 1, 2016, The Financial Times published an article entitled “FCA warns Deutsche on ‘serious’ financial crime control issues”, stating that the United Kingdom’s Financial Conduct Authority (“FCA”) sent a letter to Deutsche Bank on March 2, 2015, accusing it of having “serious” and “systemic” failings in its controls against financing terrorism, money laundering, aiding against international sanctions, and committing financial crimes. The FCA stated that its investigation uncovered, among other things, incomplete documentations, lack of monitoring, and influencing staff to take actions related to specific clients, which all amounted to a “serious” and “systemic” controls failure. On May 1, 2016, Bloombergpublished a similar article entitled “Deutsche Bank Said to Be Faulted by FCA Over Lax Client Vetting”, stating that the FCA faulted the Company for “serious” lapses in efforts to thwart money laundering and criticized the Company’s ability to verify client’s abilities and goals, or ensure that it wasn’t aiding organizations subject to international sanctions.
On this news, shares of Deutsche Bank fell $1.62 per share or approximately 9% over the next two trading days to close at $17.34 per share on May 3, 2016, damaging investors.