Deutsche Bank in $26.3m shareholder settlement

NEW YORK, Sept 24 (Reuters): Deutsche Bank AG agreed to pay $26.25 million to settle a US shareholder lawsuit accusing the German bank of lax oversight while doing business with risky, ultra-rich clients like Jeffrey Epstein and Russian oligarchs.
The preliminary all-cash settlement filed on Friday in federal court in Manhattan requires approval by US District Judge Jed Rakoff, who in June allowed the proposed class action to proceed.
Shareholders led by Yun Wang, who traded Deutsche Bank stock in 2018 and 2020, claimed that the bank had known its know-your-customer and anti-money laundering controls were ineffective, and that its share price fell as problems emerged.
Deutsche Bank denied wrongdoing in agreeing to settle. Chief Executive Christian Sewing and his predecessor John Cryan are also defendants, and also denied wrongdoing.
A bank spokesman declined to comment. Sewing has since taking over in 2018 tried to show investors that Deutsche Bank has addressed its internal controls shortfalls.