Banks Suspicion of money laundering: BKA searches Deutsche Bank
Raid at Deutsche Bank: The judiciary searches buildings of Germany's largest financial institution in Frankfurt and Berlin on suspicion of money laundering - on the very day before the financial institution presents its 2025 financial statements.
28.01.2026, 14:09
28.01.2026, 14:10
SDA
Unknown managers and employees are accused, as the Frankfurt public prosecutor's office announced on Wednesday. The Frankfurt Public Prosecutor's Office for Economic Crime Frankfurt am Main is conducting the investigation together with the Federal Criminal Police Office (BKA).
The background to this is the bank's previous business relationships with foreign companies, which are suspected of having engaged in money laundering. Additional evidence is to be secured during the searches. "Der Spiegel" had previously reported on this.
Bank confirms searches
"No further information can be provided on the background to the business relationships, the transactions carried out via Deutsche Bank AG and their scope, or on the companies themselves," explained a spokesperson for the public prosecutor's office.
A spokesperson for Deutsche Bank confirmed the searches on request, without giving any further details: "We confirm that a measure is currently being carried out by the public prosecutor's office in Frankfurt at the offices of Deutsche Bank," the spokesperson said. "The bank is cooperating fully with the public prosecutor's office. We ask for your understanding that we will not comment beyond this."
Accusations of not looking closely enough at the issue of money laundering and filing suspicious activity reports too late have repeatedly caused trouble for Deutsche Bank. At the end of April 2022, for example, investigators from the public prosecutor's office, BKA and Bafin searched the bank's headquarters in Frankfurt. The financial supervisory authority Bafin temporarily sent a special representative to the bank to monitor progress in the fight against money laundering and terrorist financing.
