Deutsche Bank's Juergen Fitschen regrets complaining about police raid

BERLIN: Under fire from politicians and judges for "attempting to influence the judiciary," Juergen Fitschen, who along with India-born Anshu Jain is the co-CEO of Deutsche Bank, has publicly apologised for making a complaint to Hessen state's Premier about a police raid at the bank's headquarters in Frankfurt.

Fitschen, who has been at the helm of the largest German lender together with Jain since June, regretted that his call to Hessen Premier Volker Bouffier last Thursday provoked harsh criticism.

"My call was with good intentions," he said in an interview.

He said he wanted to convey to Bouffier his deep concern over how the massive raid involving more than 500 police officials and tax inspectors will be viewed abroad.

"Independence of the judiciary is very precious also for me. If my call created a wrong impression among the public, I would like to apologise for that," he told the newspaper.

Fitschen said that Deutsche Bank will fully cooperate with the state prosecutor's office in Frankfurt investigating allegations of tax fraud and money laundering related to the European Union's carbon trade scheme.

Deutsche Bank is accused of aiding and abetting a scheme devised by a ring of international traders to evade paying around 300 million euros in value added tax in the trade of emission certificates between 2009 and 2010.

In December last year, a regional court in Frankfurt sentenced six men of different nationalities to imprisonment after finding them guilty of tax evasion in emissions trade.

The state prosecutor in Frankfurt has been investigating 25 employees of Deutsche Bank on charges of complicity in tax evasion and money laundering.

Last week, six of them were arrested and a magistrate in Frankfurt later ordered to keep five of them in preventive custody.

The prosecutor also extended its investigations to Fitschen and to Chief Financial Officer (CFO) Stefan Krause because they signed the bank's value added tax statement for 2009.