German police in search at Deutsche Bank offices

Frankfurt prosecutors’ spokeswoman Nadja Niesen said the investigation focused on two bank employees, aged 50 and 46, and possibly other as yet unidentified suspects.

Some 170 prosecutors, state police, national police and tax investigators were involved in the morning searches of six buildings in Frankfurt, and in nearby Eschborn and Gross-Umstadt.

The investigation was launched after evaluation of the explosive Panama Papers tax haven revelations and the previous Offshore Leaks report of offshore bank accounts.

The analysis “gave rise to suspicion that Deutsche Bank was helping clients set up so-called offshore companies in tax havens and the proceeds of crimes were transferred there from Deutsche Bank accounts” without the bank reporting it.

In 2016 alone, more than 900 customers are alleged to have transferred some f311 million to one such company set up in the British Virgin Islands, she said.

The suspects are accused of failing to report the suspicious transactions even though there was “sufficient evidence” to have been aware of it.

Deutsche Bank confirmed that authorities were “conducting an investigation at a number of our offices in Germany”.