Banks cleared over Vodafone takeover pay-outs

Germany’s top banker and five co-defendants were acquitted of criminal charges today over payments to executives during a high-profile 2000 telecom takeover battle.

Prosecutors had charged that Deutsche Bank chief executive Josef Ackermann and the other defendants had acted illegally in approving or accepting the payments during Vodafone’s buyout of German cell phone rival Mannesmann – a €145bn deal that was the largest corporate merger ever at the time.