And you thought German landesbanks were boring.
Last week, HSH Nordbank reportedly sent a memo to its employees preparing them for an upcoming Spiegel report. At the centre of the story were supposedly allegations that the bank’s former head of the New York branch, known as Roland K, was fired after child pornography was found in his office.
That event has now been turned on its head with allegations that K was framed by other Nordbank execs, namely Nordbank’s general counsel Wolfgang Goessmann, and CEO Dirk Jens Nonnenmacher. Goessmann has denied that he fabricated evidence as a reason for firing Roland K. Meanwhile, a report by law firm WilmerHale, which was commissioned by the bank, found that Nonnenmacher was “not in breach of any duty at any time” in connection with the matter, according to the below.
The below, incidentally, is not the internal memo sent to Nordbank staff, but it is something the bank e-mailed out in response to Spiegel’s story — and other media reports. So here goes:
Hamburg/Kiel, 26 August 2010 – The Executive Committee of HSH Nordbank’s Supervisory Board today dealt with reports that have recently appeared in the media concerning putative cases of spying in which executives of the Bank had also allegedly been involved. At the conclusion of the Executive Committee’s meeting, the Supervisory Board was reported to about the results of these deliberations.
It is correct that in 2009 there were individual cases in which an attempt had been made to obtain access to privileged information on the Bank. These cases were investigated and dealt with immediately after coming to light. In this connection, employment contracts of responsible members of the Bank’s internal security department were terminated. Accordingly the Supervisory Board has complete confidence in the Management Board’s capacity to act and in the determination of the Chairman of the Management Board to put a stop to such unlawful machinations.
In the recent past, highly contradictory statements have also been made to members of the Bank’s Supervisory Board in connection with the circumstances leading to the termination of the contract with the former Management Board member Frank Roth. In addition, the head of the Bank’s legal department was incriminated in a number of accusations, which were subsequently retracted. This has also received broad coverage in the media. Thereupon, we immediately retained the services of a renowned law firm as well as an accounting company to investigate this matter in detail. At the same time, BaFin has commenced an official examination. We assume that it will be possible to clarify all aspects of this matter swiftly and that the employees of the Bank concerned will be rehabilitated in full.
The Executive Committee today also considered the report submitted by law firm WilmerHale concerning the dispute with the former Head of the Bank’s New York branch, which has also been covered in the media. WilmerHale has been investigating and evaluating this matter in detail on the Bank’s behalf for several months. It comes to the conclusion that Mr. Nonnenmacher was not in breach of any duty at any time in connection with this matter.
Now that the Bank has again taken a decisive step towards economic recovery, the Supervisory Board will be doing everything in its power to prevent irresponsible rumours and contention from diverting attention from or even adversely affecting such success.
The Supervisory Board.
Head over to Der Spiegel for more.
Related links:
HSH Nordbank calls in the cops - FT Alphaville