Bankers Trust (Remember them? The bank that Deutsche Bank is purchasing, issue 99:04:02) will pay $63.5 million in fines as a settlement of charges that they illegally took $19.1 million from unclaimed customer accounts. The bank was charged with applying the funds to the bank's assets and doctoring accounts to make the company look better. The fine will be split between federal authorities ($60 million) and New York State ($3.5 million). The bank will also return the money to the rightful owners.
Bankers Trust's lawyer David Daniel Brown IV, said, "In certain instances, these individuals acted contrary to the express legal advice of the bank's outside counsel." He continued, "Although this group of employees included the senior manager and the controller of the business unit, the bank believes that a small number of ... employees were involved in the knowing falsification of the bank's records." Since the theft was discovered, management personnel, policies, and procedures have been changed.
Although an investigation is ongoing, the merger of Deutsche Bank and Bankers Trust will still proceed as scheduled. Bankers Trust chairman and CEO, Frank Newman, says "We feel it is appropriate to put this three-year-old matter behind us as we near our merger with Deutsche Bank."
