DDue to the Wirecard insolvency, small shareholders have lost billions of euros. 44,700 shareholders alone have registered almost 7.72 billion euros in claims with the insolvency administrator Michael Jaffé, as the Munich lawyer reported in his most recent report to the creditors' committee. A private investor from the Rhineland did not want to wait years for the news, but in the end he would come away empty-handed. The man, who, according to the Koblenz regional court, had held 1,232 Wirecard shares in his portfolio with a temporary value of 117,040 euros, did not take legal action against the former DAX group or its ex-board members. Instead, since the summer of 2023, he has been suing his own custodian bank – Commerzbank, whose analyst at the time, Heike Pauls, had recommended buying shares in the payment service provider without any concerns until shortly before its bankruptcy in June 2020.
Months later, the investor sold his shares at a price of 83 cents per share and received just under 1,020 euros. Before the Koblenz regional court, the bank customer did not claim the entire damage, which according to the judiciary he estimated at around 165,000 euros, but instead asserted 60,000 euros in a partial lawsuit. He bases his claim for damages on a breach of his custody agreement with Commerzbank. This violated a duty of loyalty, according to the lawsuit, which was first reported by “Spiegel” in June 2023.
The customer argued in court that Commerzbank had continued to make purchase recommendations for Wirecard shares, even though it had itself decided internally in May 2020 to terminate its business relationships with the payment processor. In fact, in January 2019, an internal bank audit revealed suspicious financial transactions at Wirecard. On February 26, 2019, Commerzbank transmitted 345 suspected cases of money laundering to the “Financial Intelligence Unit,” a special customs unit. The plaintiff argued that Commerzbank should have published the information as an ad hoc announcement. But Commerzbank's board of directors failed to communicate the “abrupt end” of the business relationship with Wirecard to depository customers in breach of duty.
The judges denied a claim under the custody agreement and dismissed the lawsuit. In particular, this does not concern comprehensive, ongoing financial concerns or the obligation to provide advice “about actual events on the capital market”. The customer remains responsible for his own investment decisions. In addition, according to the Money Laundering Act, Commerzbank was prohibited from informing contractual partners or other third parties of a report to the FIU. A spokeswoman for Commerzbank did not want to comment on the ongoing proceedings when asked by the FAZ. The judgment of December 22, 2023 is not final and an appeal is possible (ref. 3 O 180/23).
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