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Deutsche Bank under fire again

September 23, 2014

Deutsche Bank's co-chief executive, Jürgen Fitschen, again finds himself at the center of a lawsuit tied to a long-standing dispute over the collapse of a media empire.

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Deutsche Bank Hauptversammlung Jürgen Fitschen
Image: Reuters

German prosecutors said Tuesday they had filed fraud charges against Deutsche Bank's co-Chief Executive Jürgen Fitschen and four other former executives.

The suits revolve around a protracted legal battle with the bank over the collapse of the deceased media tycoon Leo Kirch's empire.

Prosecutors also went after Fitschen's predecessors Josef Ackermann and Rolf Breuer, as well as two more ex-managers, saying they made false statements in court to hinder compensatory payments to heirs of the late media mogul.

Last February, Deutsche Bank agreed to pay those heirs more than 775 million euros (about $1.06 billion at the time) in a settlement, so the current charges only concern "attempted fraud," prosecutors said.

Kirch sued Deutsche Bank in 2002 after the bank's former chief executive, Rolf Breuer, called into question his company's creditworthiness during a television interview. After Breuer's appearance on Bloomberg Television, three of Kirch's main subsidiaries declared bankruptcy.

cjc/hg (dpa, AFP)