Deutsche Bank surveillance probe finds 4 incidents

BERLIN — Deutsche Bank AG said Wednesday that an independent investigation of questionable surveillance activities at the company uncovered four incidents dating back more than a decade.

So far, two executives have been fired over allegations Germany’s biggest bank spied on a supervisory board member and a shareholder, among others. The bank in May asked law firm Cleary Gottlieb Steen & Hamilton to investigate the claims surrounding its corporate security department.

In the law firm’s report, Deutsche Bank said the incidents found included one in which a journalist and member of the supervisory board were monitored in a bid to identify the leak of confidential information in 2001. It did not name any of those involved.

The bank said that the “supervisory board member involved was thought to be a potential source of the leak,” though the suspicions were not corroborated by any evidence.

A second incident in 2006 involved a shareholder, while a third concerned “a private individual, who had issued to threats to board members.” The fourth incident involved an unidentified member of the company’s management board.

On Tuesday, Frankfurt prosecutors said they were examining the allegations and considering whether to launch a formal criminal investigation.

A former representative of the ver.di service workers’ union on Deutsche Bank’s supervisory board, Gerald Hermann, was quoted by German media earlier this month as saying that he had been a target of surveillance by the bank. German weekly Der Spiegel has reported that a critical shareholder also was snooped on, among others.

Rafael Schenz, head of security for the bank in Germany, and Wolfram Schmitt, the head of investor relations, have had their contracts terminated.

Shares of Deutsche Bank closed down 0.4 percent to €48.89 ($69.57) in Frankfurt.

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