The Hamburg public prosecutor suspects a Berenberg Bank employee to have, on behalf of the institute, an interest of more than ten percent in the listed companies Tele Columbus, WCM and Pfeiffer Vacuum. This is the economic week. The prosecutor has confirmed the information of the magazine. Berenberg did not want to comment on the details of the investigation.
The bank, if it was in possession of stockpiles of this size or had access to them, would have to report this publicly. The public prosecutor's office checks whether there has been a breach of reporting obligations and has thereby influenced the exchange rates of the companies.
The investigation is based on a criminal complaint by the Federal Financial Supervisory Authority (Bundesanstalt für Finanzdienstleistungsaufsicht, BaFin).
Investors must make their shares public as soon as they hold more than three percent of a company. The telecom operator United Internet reported its share of the Berlin cable network operator Tele Columbus however only, when he had secured a share of 15 per cent over a daughter. At the beginning of February 2016, the real estate group DIC Asset announced that it had held close to 13% of its competitors WCM for several days. A day later, it should have already been more than 20 percent. The pump manufacturer Busch reported his shareholding in Pfeiffer Vacuum for the first time when he already owned 15 percent of the shares.
The BaFin had routinely checked whether there could have been violations of voting rights in the structure of the participations. Berenberg could secretly buy the shares of WCM, Tele Columbus, and Pfeiffer Vacuum, or at least get access to them, and then passed them on to the United Internet, DIC Asset and the Busch Group.
So far, only one employee from Berenberg has been identified, "with the possibility that other employees were involved," said the prosecutor against the Economic Week. Against employees of United Internet, DIC Asset and the Busch Group is not yet determined.