RMBS Lawsuit Against Deutsche Bank Can Proceed, Says District Court

The U.S. District Court for the Southern District of New York is refusing to throw out the shareholder securities fraud lawsuit filed against Deutsche Bank (DB) and three individuals over their alleged role in marketing residential mortgage-backed securities and mortgage-backed securities before the economic crisis. The court found that the plaintiffs, led by Building Trades United Pension Fund, the Steward International Enhanced Index Fund, and the Steward Global Equity Income Fund, provided clear allegations that omissions and misstatements were made and there had been a scam with intent to defraud.

The RMBS lawsuit accuses Deutsche Bank of putting out misleading and false statements regarding its financial health prior to the financial crisis. The plaintiffs contend that the financial firm created and sold MBS it was aware were toxic, while overstating how well it could handle risk, and did not write down fast enough the securities that had dropped in value. Because of this, claim the shareholders, the investment bank’s stock dropped 87% in under 24 months.

U.S. District Judge Katherine Forrest said that the plaintiffs did an adequate job of alleging that even as Deutsche Bank talked in public about its low risk lending standards, senior employees at the firm were given information showing the opposite. She said that there are allegations of recklessness that are “plausible.” The district court also found that the complaint adequately alleged control person and antifraud violations involving defendants Chief Executive Officer Josef Ackermann, Chief Financial Officer Anthony Di Iorio, and Chief Risk Officer Hugo Banziger, who are accused of making material misstatements about the risks involved in investing in CDOS and RMBS while knowing they were less conservative than what investors might think. Claims against defendant ex-Supervisory Board Chairman Clemens Borsig, however, were thrown out due to the plaintiffs’ failure to allege that he made an actual misstatement.

The MBS case is looking for investors that purchased Deutsche stock between January 2007 and January 2009.

More Blog Posts:
Deutsche Bank Settles Massachusetts CDO Case for $17.5 Million, Stockbroker Fraud Blog, April 1, 2013

Barclays LIBOR Manipulation Scam Places Citigroup, Credit Suisse, Deutsche Bank, JP Morgan Chase, and UBS Under The Investigation Microscope, Institutional Investor Securities Blog, July 16, 2012