Deutsche Bank Under Investigation For Money Laundering, Suspicious Activity With Jared Kushner

Deutsche Bank, the bank that consistently lent money to a bankrupt real estate developer Donald Trump when no other bank would, might face criminal charges stemming from its disregard of federal regulations meant to stop money laundering.

The Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) and other federal units are investigating if Deutsche Bank failed to properly comply with anti-money-laundering regulations. Federal prosecutors from multiple jurisdictions and the FBI want to know how Deutsche Bank dealt with internal suspicious-activity reports flagging possible money laundering.

Among these were transactions linked to the White House senior adviser Jared Kushner and the now defunct Donald J. Trump Foundation. The foundation was organized to donate proceeds from Trump’s book, "Trump: The Art of the Deal," to charitable causes.

Instead, the foundation was used as a "slush fund" for the Trump family, including Trump’s 2016 presidential campaign, said the New York attorney general's office. The foundation was shut down by the government in December 2018.

This criminal investigation is separate from the Congressional investigations into Trump’s financial ties to Russia during the 2016 election. This investigation has also enmeshed Deutsche Bank because it continued to lend Trump money when other banks wouldn’t.

Deutsche Bank has long been under scrutiny for its weak lending standards. Also puzzling is its continuing willingness to do business with Trump when most banks refused because of his relentless financial troubles.

Deutsche Bank’s probable violations of the anti-money laundering law were exposed by Tammy McFadden who worked at the bank's anti-money-laundering division. McFadden told The New York Times she flagged a number of suspicious money transfers between Kushner Companies LLC and Russians during the 2016 U.S. presidential election.

McFadden concluded the bank should report the shady transaction to the U.S. government. Instead, managers of the bank’s private-banking division in New York decided McFadden's concerns were unfounded and did not submit the report to the Treasury Department's financial-crimes unit.

McFadden said the involvement of the private-banking division was highly irregular since a report like hers would usually be handled by a team of anti-money-laundering experts working separately from the private-banking division.

Other former members of Deutsche Bank's anti-money-laundering division had also prepared separate suspicious-activity reports in 2017 concerning transactions between the bank and the Donald J. Trump Foundation that weren’t sent to the Treasury.

Kushner Companies LLC is a real estate developer based in New York City. Its founder, Charles Kushner, was convicted of tax evasion and witness tampering in 2005, and served time in federal prison. As a result, he handed over the management of the company to his son, Jared.