Former exec sues Deutsche Bank over $4.7 million bonus

Bloomberg

A former Deutsche Bank AG executive, Nizar Al-Bassam, is suing the German lender to reclaim bonuses totaling about 4 million euros ($4.7 million) following a probe into hiring practices in Russia and the UK.
Al-Bassam, a former head of corporate and debt capital market finance for central and eastern Europe, the Middle East and Africa, said he believed the bank withheld the deferred compensation after investigating his involvement in hiring practices in Russia.
“The allegation of misconduct for which the suspension was applied has long-since been abandoned,” Al-Bassam, said in a court filing dated April 26.
Al-Bassam was part of a wave of senior Deutsche Bank officials to leave soon after John Cryan became co-chief executive officer in 2015. Colin Fan, the former co-head of its investment banking unit, settled a suit for about $6 million, Bloomberg News reported earlier this month.
Al-Bassam left Deutsche Bank after 17 years, and joined ex-colleagues Michele Faissola and Dalinc Ariburnu to create the London-based buyout fund F.A.B. Partners LP, which has since been rebranded as Centricus. Al-Bassam also now serves as an adviser to the Softbank Vision fund.
The bank repeatedly made allegations against Al-Bassam only to drop them for different ones, according to his lawyers. At this point, Deutsche Bank only has concerns about Al-Bassam’s involvement in one of the Russian hires.
“Throughout the process, the actions of Deutsche Bank have been well below the most basic requirements of procedural independence, fairness, objectivity, transparency and regulatory compliance,”
his lawyer Richard East said in a statement. Rupert Trefgarne, a spokesman for Deutsche Bank in London, declined to comment.
Al-Bassam said he learned that the bonus forfeiture was related to four new employees in the UK and Russia. The bank said his approval of those posts may have breached its bribery and corruption policy as well conflict-of-interest guidelines, according to the court filing. He was interviewed by Deutsche Bank executives about the positions.