Bank chief blasted for calling politician to complain at raid

German politicians yesterday unanimously criticised the Deutsche Bank co-CEO Juergen Fitschen, following reports he had called a senior politician to complain about a raid on the bank’s Frankfurt headquarters last week.

Mr Fitschen and Stefan Krause, the bank’s chief financial officer, are among 25 staff being investigated on suspicion of tax evasion, money laundering, and obstruction of justice over trade in carbon permits designed to combat global warming.

Images of armed police cordoning off its twin-tower head office in Germany’s financial capital were broadcast across the world on Wednesday, in a new public relations setback for a bank grappling with other legal headaches as well as major managerial and cultural change in the wake of the global banking crisis.