BERLIN – Deutsche Bank co-CEO Juergen Fitschen has gone on trial along with two of his predecessors, charged with attempted fraud for allegedly colluding to deceive judges in a long-running legal battle with a now-deceased media mogul.
The trial that opened Tuesday in the Munich state court caps a saga that has dogged Germany’s biggest bank for over a decade. The case stems from a 2002 interview in which then-CEO Rolf Breuer said banks wouldn’t lend Leo Kirch’s media group any more money. Kirch accused Breuer of contributing to his company’s subsequent bankruptcy and sued.
Prosecutors allege that Breuer made false statements in court and that bank executives including Fitschen and co-defendants Breuer and Josef Ackermann, another former CEO, backed a written submission containing a false statement.
Kirch died in 2011.
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