The supervisory board of Deutsche Bank AG (DB, DBK.XE), under
the leadership of Paul Achleitner, isn't planning to launch a new
investigation into allegations that the bank hid billions of
dollars of paper losses during the financial crisis, a person close
to the matter told Wall Street Journal Deutschland.
The allegations were already examined extensively when Clemens
Boersig was the chairman of the bank's supervisory board, the
source said. Due to clear results of the previous investigation,
Mr. Achleitner sees no reason to re-investigate the case, he
added.
However, the next scheduled meeting of the bank's risk committee
may discuss how a two-and-a-half-year-old topic could create a stir
in the media, the person noted. Recently, some ex-employees of the
bank alleged that the bank didn't value securities properly and hid
losses reaching into billions.
Deutsche Bank has denied any wrong doing, saying that the
allegations by three former U.S.-based employees were "wholly
unfounded" and had been the subject of a "careful and thorough"
review it had commissioned.
The bank said that the "valuations and financial reporting were
proper" and a significant proportion of the multibillion-dollar
trades at the center of the allegations have been unwound, without
any unreported losses emerging.
Ex-employees of the bank have told the Securities and Exchange
Commission that traders at Deutsche Bank overvalued a portfolio of
derivatives to hide rapidly mounting losses when financial markets
were collapsing in 2008, according to people close to the
investigation.
The investigation being conducted by the SEC has been underway
since May 2010, the people said. Although the probe isn't
officially closed, it is unclear how active it is.
Deutsche Bank, Europe's largest bank by assets, was one of the
few big banks to manage the financial crisis without state help. In
2008, the bank recorded a loss of 3.9 billion euros ($5.03
billion), but returned to profit in 2009.
Write to Madeleine Nissen at Madeleine.Nissen@dowjones.com