Deutsche Bank Employees Charged in Emissions Trading Case
FRANKFURT—Frankfurt’s public prosecutor’s office has filed charges against eight current and former employees of Deutsche Bank AG for alleged tax evasion that has cost Germany hundreds of millions of euros, people familiar with the matter said Thursday.
The prosecutor, which declined to name the bank involved, confirmed Thursday it had charged eight individuals, alleging that they had set up a chain of firms that helped them to commit value-added tax fraud when buying and selling carbon-emission, or CO2, certificates between September 2009 and February 2010.
In filing charges against the eight individuals, the prosecutor said that they have “in four to six cases provoked the bank to issue wrong value-add tax statements” and effectively misled internal control systems, resulting in tax evasion of €220 million ($246 million). The prosecutor added that a 57-year-old U.S.-based Briton, who allegedly acted as ringleader in the case, will be extradited to Germany soon.
Deutsche Bank is the only German bank that has been publicly linked to tax fraud in relation to carbon-emission certificate trading, since a raid conducted by 500 prosecutors in December 2012. The bank previously incurred a charge of €310 million in the third quarter of 2011, related to value-added tax linked to carbon-emissions.
