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Deutsche denies tax guilt
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June 17, 1999: 3:44 p.m. ET
Breuer maintains firm's innocence in tax probe and rejects possible deal
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NEW YORK (CNNfn) - A top executive of Deutsche Bank AG blamed German prosecutors Thursday for "unjustly" including his company in a wide-ranging federal tax probe and promised no settlement deal would be forthcoming.
In the strongest public assertion to date of his company's innocence, Deutsche Chief Executive Officer Rolf Breuer said the year-long federal investigation into whether his bank helped shield customers from interest income taxes would prove unfounded in the end.
The company acknowledged Wednesday that probe had been expanded to include several top executives, including Breuer himself. German prosecutors suspect Deutsche and several other German banks carried out a systematic effort to move client funds anonymously into tax havens after a withholding tax on interest income was introduced in 1994.
"This system did not exist," Breuer told a German business television station Thursday. "We feel unjustly accused. Therefore, we're calm about this case being solved because there's nothing there."
Breuer maintained the company would continue to cooperate with prosecutors in an investigation he believes could go on for several more years. But he said there was "neither any intent or any reason" to strike a settlement with justice officials.
Breuer's vigorous defense came near the end of a turbulent week for the world's largest bank.
On Wednesday, the company confirmed that Richard Daniel, the former chief financial officer of Bankers Trust Corp. -- the New York bank acquired by Deutsche last month -- was resigning. Daniel was among the Bankers Trust officials assigned to investigate whether the company had illegally transferred customer funds between 1994 and 1996 to boost corporate profits.
Deutsche noted in a public filing earlier this month that it might hire a special investigator to explore what role current Bankers Trust officials might have played in that scheme. But a person close to Deutsche insisted Wednesday Daniel's resignation was not related to that probe.
-- from staff and wire reports
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Deutsche Bank
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