Deutsche Bank To Pay Over $130M For FCPA, Fraud Violations
Jack Queen, 08 January 2021
Deutsche Bank AG agreed Friday to fork over more than $130 million to resolve separate yearslong bribery and commodities fraud schemes in a pair of agreements with the U.S. Department of Justice and the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission.
Under the terms of a deferred prosecution agreement with the DOJ, the German bank will pay criminal penalties of $79.5 million for Foreign Corrupt Practices Act violations involving bribes to consultants in Saudi Arabia, Abu Dhabi and Italy in an effort to secure business there.
It will also pay over $43 million in disgorgement and prejudgment interest in a parallel civil matter with the SEC, which says that Deutsche fraudulently recorded $7 million in bribes as legitimate expenses and profited by $35 million. The SEC claims that, along with illicit payments made to the consultants identified in the criminal case, Deutsche bribed a consultant in China as well.
In addition to the nearly $123 million total it owes for bribery offenses, Deutsche will hand over $5.6 million to the DOJ for allegedly manipulating the precious metals market, which will be credited toward a $30 million civil fine previously imposed by the U.S. Commodity Futures Trading Commission.
