Could Trump's Relationship With Deutsche Bank Lead To Money Laundering Charges? Congress May Conduct Parallel Probe To Mueller Investigation

Rep. Adam Schiff of California, the presumed incoming chair of the House Intelligence Committee, is looking into investigating President Donald Trump's business records with Deutsche Bank, recently telling Jeffrey Toobin of the New Yorker that there might be potential money laundering charges.

“We are going to be looking at the issue of possible money laundering by the Trump Organization, and Deutsche Bank is one obvious place to start,” Schiff told Toobin.

The German multinational bank has been the subject of much controversy over the years. Deutsche Bank's headquarters on Nov. 29 were raided by prosecutors in a money laundering investigation in connection with the Panama Papers. The raid came after the bank was fined in January 2017 for $630 million by U.S. and U.K. regulators in connection with a $10 billion Russian money laundering scheme. In 2015, Deutsche Bank pled guilty in the U.S. to wire fraud for its role in the 2012 Libor scandal and paid $2.5 billion in fines.

Troubles that follow Deutsche may also follow Trump, as it has widely been reported that Deutsche was the only bank willing to give Trump loans in the late 1990s — a time when most banks would not lend to Trump after his many failed business ventures. Trump’s financial disclosures show he has as much as $364 million in loans from the bank. The Wall Street Journal in March 2016 reported that Trump and his companies had received at least $2.5 billion in loans from Deutsche Bank and co-lenders since 1998.

Deutsche Bank also has had a relationship with others close to Trump. Special counsel Robert Mueller reportedly subpoenaed Deutsche Bank for information on former Trump campaign chairman Paul Manafort, who in August was convicted in the Eastern District of Virginia on eight counts related to tax and bank fraud. In December 2017, prosecutors in the U.S. attorney’s office for the Eastern District of New York reportedly subpoenaed Deutsche Bank for records related to the family of Trump's son-in-law and White House adviser Jared Kushner.

Schiff isn't the only lawmaker on Capitol Hill interested in Deutsche Bank. Democratic Sens. Elizabeth Warren of Massachusetts and Chris Van Hollen of Maryland issued a statement on Dec. 13 to Republican Sen. Mike Crapo of Idaho, chair of the Senate Banking Committee, to investigate Deutsche Bank's compliance controls.

The statement reads: "Over the past several years, Deutsche Bank has been the subject of numerous enforcement actions in the in the United States and abroad, and just weeks ago the bank's head office and other locations in Frankfurt were raided by 170 police officers and tax investigators as part of a money laundering probe. Given the Committee’s jurisdiction over banking regulatory enforcement, Deutsche Bank’s history of regulatory problems, and the recent allegations of money laundering that resulted in the recent raid conducted by German law enforcement, we request that the Banking Committee undertake an investigation into Deutsche Bank and its compliance with the Bank Secrecy Act (BSA) and Anti Money Laundering (AML) regulations."

Rep. Maxine Waters of California, who has been nominated to chair the House Committee on Financial Services, is also expected to investigate Deutsche Bank's ties to Russia.

Deutsche Bank responded that it hasn't been accused of wrongdoing and is cooperating with authorities.

"Deutsche Bank takes its legal obligations seriously and remains committed to cooperating with authorized investigations," said Deutsche Bank spokesman Troy Gravitt in a statement. "Our recent record of cooperating with such investigations has been widely recognized by regulators. We intend to keep working in this spirit."

An International Business Times investigation detailed the potential conflict of interest between the Trump administration and Deutsche Bank after the Trump administration in January waived part of the punishment for Deutsche Bank and four other megabanks, whose affiliates were convicted and fined from the Libor scandal.