Deutsche Bank was mixed up in spying operation?

According to German magazine Der Spiegel, Deutsche Bank commissioned an investigation which revealed that Germany's largest bank spied on several of its management board members, supervisory board members and on at least one shareholder. Legal firm Cleary Gottlieb Steen & Hamilton prepared 150-page report that uncovered evidence of a massive covert snooping operation run by the bank's corporate security department.

The bank is alleged to have hired private detectives to spy on Gerald Herrmann, an official from the Ver.di services union who had a seat on Deutsche Bank's supervisory board and was suspected of leaking the bank's third quarter results to a Reuters journalist.

Der Spiegel says that the bank at first had only admitted comparing travel data such as hotel stays to establish a link between Herrmann and the Reuters' reporter. However, the snooping operation went too far, as the security department hired external detectives to monitor him and other board members and at least one troublesome shareholder. The investigators are alleged to have compiled detailed reports and looked for personal weaknesses such as alcohol problems or gambling.

In addition, Deutsche Bank itself now faces the prospect of lawsuits from individual caught up in the spying and a probe by data protection officials in the western state of Hesse and financial watchdog BaFin.