Deutsche Bank said on Monday, 7 September, that it had settled a Frankfurt lawsuit in which former manager Dario Schiraldi sought €152 million ($176.62 million) in damages, resolving the claim for an undisclosed sum on a confidential basis. The Frankfurt Regional Court confirmed that the plaintiff had withdrawn the case, which had been scheduled for hearing from Thursday. "The parties have now resolved on a confidential basis all of the claims and allegations that Mr. Schiraldi has previously made against Deutsche Bank and its personnel," the bank said in a statement. Deutsche Bank added that the resolution would have "only a small financial impact" on its third-quarter earnings. A lawyer for Schiraldi did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
The settlement came three days before the trial was due to begin, in a case that had threatened to embroil the bank's chief executive. Schiraldi, formerly a senior manager in Deutsche Bank's asset and wealth management division, filed the claim in Frankfurt in 2024, alleging that the bank had damaged his reputation and earnings by wrongly attributing responsibility to him over derivative and repurchase transactions conducted with Italy's Monte dei Paschi di Siena in 2008. He was among six former employees who brought claims on that basis. The bank has stated in its annual report that it considers all such claims unfounded and would defend itself robustly, disputing what it described as inflated and unrealistic alleged losses.
ORIGINS IN THE MONTE DEI PASCHI TRANSACTIONS
The dispute traces to transactions Deutsche Bank arranged with Monte dei Paschi in 2008, which Italian prosecutors suspected were structured to conceal losses at the Siena-based lender through improper accounting treatment. A first-instance Italian court convicted managers of Monte dei Paschi, Deutsche Bank itself, and several Deutsche Bank managers involved in the transaction. All those convicted were acquitted on appeal in 2022. Schiraldi's 2019 conviction was among those overturned.
The former bankers subsequently argued that Deutsche Bank's own conduct contributed to the first-instance convictions and damaged their careers. A central allegation in the case was that Deutsche Bank and Christian Sewing, who was handed the task of investigating the trades in an audit in 2013 before becoming chief executive in 2018, scapegoated the bankers and later failed to set the record straight. Deutsche Bank said in 2025 that the allegations were "false", that the audit had been thorough and independent, and that the executives involved "discharged their responsibilities appropriately". In November 2025 Schiraldi escalated the matter beyond the courts, asking the European Central Bank to conduct a supervisory review of the bank.
FOUR LONDON CLAIMS REMAIN OUTSTANDING
Schiraldi is the second of the six original claimants with whom Deutsche Bank has settled. The bank reached terms in February with another former banker, Michele Foresti. Deutsche Bank declined to comment on the size of the Schiraldi settlement.
Four other former Deutsche Bank employees are pursuing cases in a London court seeking at least £664 million, according to a filing seen by Bloomberg.