German federal prosecutors visited Deutsche Bank headquarters in Frankfurt and offices in Berlin on Wednesday morning. carry out research as part of an investigation into allegations of money laundering. The raid cast a shadow over what should have been a moment of unblemished triumph when CEO Christian Sewing announced soaring annual profits for Germany’s biggest lender.
The day after the raid, Deutsche Bank reported its highest annual profit since 2007: $8.5 billion in net profit in 2025, fueled by strong investment banking revenue. CEO Christian Sewing also unveiled a more than $1 billion share buyback program and expressed confidence in the bank’s turnaround.
But when news of the investigation broke, the German bank’s shares abandoned 1.86% on Wednesday and improved only slightly on Thursday, even after the upbeat earnings report.
“We confirm that the Frankfurt public prosecutor’s office was present in our offices on Wednesday. This concerns transactions dating back to the period 2013-2018. This is based on an allegedly late filing of a suspicious activity report,” said a Deutsche Bank spokesperson. Fortune. “On this basis, the prosecutor assesses whether there has been possible money laundering. We are of course fully cooperating with the prosecutor’s office.”
Even though Sewing wasn’t CEO at the time At the time in question, after taking over as head of Deutsche Bank in April 2018, he has been a member of the bank’s board of directors since 2015.
Deutsche Bank is trying to overcome a long history of compliance lapses and regulatory scandals. The German lender was previously raided in 2018 over allegations of tax evasion and money laundering. Wednesday’s raid follow up several civil lawsuits against the bank were filed last fall.
Since 2000, Deutsche Bank has paid more than 20 billion dollars fines and penalties related to 101 different regulatory violations, the watchdog organization Good Jobs First reported. The bank admitted fault in 13 of the 101 cases followed by the group, with the remaining 88 cases settled without admission of guilt.
Deutsche Bank also faces ongoing litigation in Europe and the United Kingdom. Last October, five former employees continued the lender in London, alleging that an internal audit, supervised by Sewing (then head of audit) – wrongly implicated them in a complex derivatives scheme based in Italy. These transactions would have hidden hundreds of millions of losses for investors. The audit, they claim, led to wrongful prosecutions and convictions for false accounting and market manipulation – verdicts that were overturned in 2022.
Court of Appeal of Milan in Italy agreed that Sewing’s audit “unquestionably influenced” the charges.
Deutsche Bank previously denied any wrongdoing in a statement to Fortune. “As noted in our annual report, the bank is aware that five individuals have threatened to file claims in the UK in connection with this matter. Deutsche Bank considers all of these claims to be completely without merit and will vigorously defend against them,” a Deutsche Bank spokesperson said, noting that Sewing was not named in the latest London court filing.
David Zaring, a professor of business ethics and law at Wharton, said Wednesday’s raid makes him wonder whether Deutsche Bank will ever move on from its past. “They have paid numerous fines, including for money laundering, as well as broader areas of compliance,” he said. Fortune“It’s fair to say that they had a compliance problem. And I guess they were hoping to have resolved some of those problems by now.”
The latest allegations
Frankfurt prosecutors confirmed they were investigating “unknown officials and employees” for suspected money laundering linked to transactions between 2013 and 2018.
Specifically, prosecutors are examining whether Deutsche Bank failed to file suspicious activity reports in a timely manner — a violation that German regulators have treated with increasing severity. In February 2025, BaFin (the German financial supervisory body) hit Deutsche Bank with a $27.5 million fire linked to three separate regulatory violations. Then, in November, imposed a record $52.5 million fine against JPMorgan for “systematic failure” to submit money laundering reports in a timely manner.
Bloomberg reported that the investigation focuses on Deutsche Bank’s business dealings with companies linked to Roman Abramovich, the sanctioned Russian billionaire who made his fortune in metals and energy before gaining international prominence as the former owner of Chelsea soccer club. Abramovich’s legal representative has denied any wrongdoing. Bloombergand also denied that the searches were linked to his activities, stating that his client “has always acted in accordance with applicable national and international laws and regulations”.
A familiar refrain
The 2013-2018 period under German investigation overlaps precisely with Deutsche Bank’s relationship with convicted sex offender Jeffrey Epstein. This connection ultimately cost the bank more than $350 million in settlements and fines. During those same years, the bank opened more than 40 accounts for Epstein and his entities, processing millions of suspicious transactions despite regulators finding “significant compliance failures” and inadequate oversight of account activity. The bank has since apologized for its relationship with the disgraced financier.
The case also echoes that of the bank participation with the Estonian branch of Danske Bank, which processed $227 billion in suspicious transactions originating largely from Russia and former Soviet states between 2007 and 2015. Deutsche Bank reportedly ease about $627 million in so-called “mirror transactions” through Lithuania’s Danske Bank – part of what has become Europe’s biggest money laundering scandal. This relationship contributed to a $186 million fine imposed by the U.S. Federal Reserve in 2023 over the bank’s failure to address long-standing anti-money laundering deficiencies.
Regardless of the Danske Bank scandal, in 2017, New York regulators fined the bank received $425 million to run a “mirror trading” system that transferred $10 billion out of Russia through its offices in Moscow, London and New York. British regulators added their own sanction, with the Financial Conduct Authority documenting how more than $10 billion was moved out of Russia “in a manner highly suggestive of financial crime”.
Will Deutsche Bank ever be able to move forward?
Under Sewing’s leadership, the bank has made significant investments in strengthening controls, including strengthening financial crime-fighting processes with technology, training and additional specialist staff, a Deutsche Bank spokesperson said. Fortune last year. Regulatory investigations since 2020 have resulted in compliance reforms and the bank has terminated many high-risk customer relationships.
But the latest raid should remind the German lender how long compliance lapses can persist.
“Deutsche Bank experienced worse between 2013 and 2018. But this gives the impression that it is back in the situation it was in 10 years ago,” Zaring said. Fortune. “And I don’t think anyone wants that.”
