Deutsche Bank’s Top Management Now Target of German Investigators

German law enforcement authorities targeted offices of the Deutsche Bank management board Friday as they spent a second day gathering evidence in an investigation into whether the bank helped clients launder money in an offshore tax haven.

Searches at the top level of management significantly raised the stakes for Deutsche Bank, which was already reeling at the prospect of another scandal. The bank has been battered by accusations of financial wrongdoing during the last decade and has paid billions of euros in fines. But so far no members of the top level of management have been convicted of criminal wrongdoing.

Nadja Niesen, a spokeswoman for prosecutors in Frankfurt, declined to say Friday which of the nine management board members’ offices were searched. But she said investigators were active on the floor reserved for the upper echelon of management, which is at the top of the twin tinted-glass towers in Frankfurt where the bank has its headquarters.

Deutsche Bank declined to comment. On Thursday it said it was cooperating with authorities.

The continuation of police searches for a second day suggest that the scope of the investigation is broad, and could weigh heavily on Deutsche Bank as it tries to rebuild its reputation and become more profitable. Forced by scandals and financial losses to scale down its investment banking operations, the bank is struggling to find other profitable businesses.

Prosecutors said Thursday they were investigating two Deutsche Bank employees they did not identify, and suggested they were likely to uncover more suspects as they gathered additional evidence. The investigation, based on information that German authorities gleaned from leaked documents known as the Panama Papers, focuses on allegations that Deutsche Bank helped hundreds of clients launder money from criminal activities. The money was funneled through a Deutsche Bank subsidiary in the British Virgin Islands, prosecutors said.