Three banking executives at German financial giant Deutsche Bank were fired for expensing a trip to a strip club last week and covering it up claiming that they had dined at the club’s steakhouse. It was later revealed that one junior executive was spared for fessing up to the crime.
Last week, Bloomberg reported the firings, which were confirmed in an emailed statement from the company that did not provide details other than to say the bank “thoroughly investigates allegations of possible misconduct comprehensively and without bias.”
According to The New York Post and Bloomberg, the firing stemmed from a trip to New York City’s Sapphire Club, a gentlemen's club that also includes a steakhouse. The executives who remain fired attempted to claim the expense came from the steakhouse, not the strip club. However, the junior executive admitted the expenses came from the strip club portion of the establishment.
Initial reports listed four executives that were fired for the incident, it is not clear which of the four had their job spared after admitting to the trip.
The lucky individual was called a “junior executive” by The Post, suggesting it is unlikely the spared employee was neither Ben Darsney, who was Deutsche Bank’s Americas head of equity capital markets, nor Ravi Raghunathan, who ran most of the bank’s Special Purpose Acquisition Company. Likely, the once fired, now spared employee is either Brandon Sun, described as a director by Bloomberg, or Daniel Gaona, an associate.
The tab was around $1,000, but the foray cost the executives a lot more than that. As part of their firing, the executives lost millions in stocks and cash they were set to receive in deferred bonus payments. Insiders told The Post that Darsney and Raghunathan lost up to $6 million in deferred bonus payments over multiple years.
According to sources speaking to The Post, at least one and possibly more of the executives fired were not actually present at the strip club, but participated in the attempted coverup, leading to their firing.
The German lender is coming off of a restructuring in 2019 that saw 18,000 staff lose their jobs. The bank has also been trying to improve its culture and compliance, with several of what Bloomberg calls “mishaps” happening recently, including a breach of a deferred prosecution agreement with the US Department of Justice over accusations that the bank was slow to report a whistleblower complaint.
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