Police Raid Deutsche Bank on Money Laundering Charges

Deutsche Bank's Frankfurt headquarters and other offices were raided by German police on Thursday. During raids of a number of Deutsche Bank offices across the city, which were confirmed in a statement from the bank, officials seized paperwork and electronic documents.

The timing of the raid inflicts more pain on Deutsche Bank after a series of setbacks and repeated failures in keeping misconduct in check have pushed the shares to all-time lows.

The subsequent investigations exposed evidence Deutsche Bank helped clients set up off-shore accounts, prosecutors said.

Nicholson adds, "according to investigators, in 2016 alone more than 900 Deutsche Bank customers were served by a subsidiary registered in the British Virgin Islands". In the past, Deutsche Bank has acknowledged that its anti-money laundering efforts have fallen short of financial rules.

The investigation emerged from an analysis of documents leaked from tax havens in recent years, including the 2016 Panama Papers, said Nadja Niesen, Frankfurt prosecutors' spokesperson.

Deutsche Bank has been under pressure after annual losses, and it agreed to pay a US$7.2 billion settlement with USA authorities past year over its sale of toxic mortgage securities in the run-up to the 2008 financial crisis.

"Just when you thought Deutsche Bank had left its legal troubles behind it, there's more", said Markus Riesselmann, an analyst at Independent Research who recommends investors sell Deutsche Bank shares. And the author and reporter Luke Harding has described a "shuffle of money" between the bank's dealings with figures in Russian Federation and its business with Trump.

In September, Germany's financial regulator ordered the bank to take further action to prevent money laundering and terrorism financing.

"... Most importantly, the lack of transparency and regulatory control have made cryptocurrencies a target for criminal purposes and we know that they on several occasions have been involved in criminal transactions like money laundering or extortion", it reads.

In that case, prosecutors are investigating whether Danish lender Danske Bank violated anti-laundering laws by funneling more than £200billion in payments through its Estonian branch.

The bank has publicly said that it agreed it needed to improve its processes to properly identify clients.

Last year, Deutsche Bank was fined almost US$700 million for allowing money laundering through artificial trades between Moscow, London and NY.

The bank has already recorded annual loses after agreeing to pay a $7.2 billion settlement with United States authorities after it sold toxic mortgage agreements prior to the 2008 financial crash.