Deutsche Bank took years to flag suspect Danske money flows

Deutsche Bank did not disclose more than one million suspect money transfers with Danske Bank until February, a person with direct knowledge of the matter said, about five years after a whistleblower flagged suspicious transactions at Danske. read more »

How Deutsche Bank Hired Its Way to the Top in China

Confidential documents reveal the troubled German bank’s brazen campaign to win business in China by charming and enriching the political elite. Here are six key takeaways.

Foreign companies have long clamored for access to China, the world’s most populous country and second-biggest economy. But when Germany’s biggest lender, Deutsche Bank, set its sights on China nearly two decades ago, it was late to the game and faced fierce competition.

An investigation by The New York Times and the German newspaper Süddeutsche Zeitung found that, for Deutsche Bank, playing catch-up meant cutting corners and bending rules. It paid millions of dollars to Chinese consultants with access to politicians, hired dozens of relatives of China’s ruling Communist Party and showered some members of the political elite with lavish gifts, according to confidential bank documents that contain spreadsheets, emails, transcripts of interviews with top executives and internal investigative reports. read more »

A Brazen Scheme, and a Minor Penalty, for Winning Business in China

It was a brazen campaign to win business in China by charming and enriching the country’s political elite.

The bank gave a Chinese president a crystal tiger and a Bang & Olufsen sound system, together worth $18,000. A premier received a $15,000 crystal horse, his Chinese zodiac animal, and his son got $10,000 in golf outings and a trip to Las Vegas. A top state banking official, a son of one of China’s founding fathers, accepted a $4,254 bottle of French wine — Château Lafite Rothschild, vintage 1945, the year he was born.

Millions of dollars were paid out to Chinese consultants, including a business partner of the premier’s family and a firm that secured a meeting for the bank’s chief executive with the president. And more than 100 relatives of the Communist Party’s ruling elite were hired for jobs at the bank, even though it had deemed many unqualified. read more »

Congress is asking vape manufacturers if they used social media bots

Bots that spew vaping spam are a uniquely modern problem.

Congress wants to know if the largest vaping companies used bot-generated social-media messages to market their products. The House Energy and Commerce Committee and the Massachusetts attorney general have asked each of the five largest manufacturers if they've relied on automated, bot-posted campaigns, The Wall Street Journal reports.

Vaping has received a ton of attention this year -- from the mysterious lung illness it seems to be causing to campaigns to legislation to deter teen vaping. Bots have gotten their fair share of the spotlight, too, with spam accounts promoting porn and undermining democracy. Bots that spew vaping spam are a uniquely modern problem, and one with the potential to reach tons of people. In a study funded by the New Jersey-based Nicholson Foundation, researchers looked at 1.2 million Twitter messages related to e-cigarettes or tobacco. A full 77 percent came from accounts believed to be bots. read more »