The Frankfurt offices of Deutsche Bank’s asset manager DWS were searched on Tuesday in connection with “suspected investment fraud”. Prosecutors suspect the company is selling (or has sold) investments pretending to be “greener” than they really are.
The raids and suspicions, confirmed in a statement from the prosecution, stemmed from a complaint made by a former DWS employee, who in 2021 became an informant for the US market supervisors.
The authorities say they have had “sufficient evidence” that the criteria known as ESG (Anglo-Saxon acronym for Environmental, Social Y governance) were only respected in a “minority of investments” made by the asset manager, which contrasts with what was contained in the brochures of various investment products sold by DWS, which guaranteed full respect of environmental, social and environmental criteria. of corporate governance.
This type of behavior, in which companies or individuals hide activities or investments contrary to what they intend to respect the ESG criteria, has deserved the qualification of “green wash“. And that’s what German authorities believe may have happened at DWS, a manager already under investigation by US supervisors for the same issue.
Source: Observadora
