NEW YORK, Sept. 27, 2022 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) — In a significant victory for aggrieved investors in Deutsche Bank AG, the bank has agreed to pay nearly $26.3 million to settle a proposed class action lawsuit against them on behalf of Investors who acquired Deutsche Bank exit between March 14, 2017 and May 12, 2020. The case is According to Karimi et al. v. Deutsche Bank AG et al. No. 1:22-cv-02854 in the US District Court for the Southern District of New York.

Pomerantz is sole lead counsel representing the putative class of plaintiffs in the lawsuit. The recovery in this case accounts for about 49.4% of the likely recoverable loss, which is well above the median recovery of 1.8% of the estimated loss for all securities class actions settled in 2021. The plaintiffs have asked the court to approve the settlement.

The complaint, filed in 2020, alleges that Deutsche Bank made materially false and misleading claims about its anti-money laundering (“AML”) deficiencies and customers it deems high-risk, such as financier and accused sex offender Jeffrey Epstein , has not properly monitored . For example, the defendants repeatedly assured investors that Deutsche Bank had “developed effective know-your-customer (KYC) procedures and a new customer onboarding process to facilitate full compliance,” and insisted that “[o]Our KYC procedures begin with intensive pre-onboarding checks and continue with periodic reviews.” Defendants also alleged that Deutsche Bank’s “robust and rigorous” KYC program “enforces strict identification requirements, name verification procedures, and the includes ongoing monitoring and regular review of all existing business relationships”, with “[s]special fuses. . . implemented for. . . politically exposed persons …”

In truth, however, far from implementing a “robust and rigorous” KYC program with “special protections” for politically exposed persons (“PEPs”),…