Spencer Platt/Getty Images News
DWS Investment Management Americas (“DIMA”), a subsidiary of Deutsche Bank (New York Stock Exchange:DB), agreed to pay $25 million to resolve two separate SEC enforcement actions: one related to its alleged failure to develop an anti-money laundering (“AML”) mutual fund program and the other. regarding its environmental, social and governance (“ESG”) investment process, the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission said Monday.
In the anti-money laundering action, the SEC alleged that DIMA “caused the mutual funds it recommended to fail to develop and implement an AML program reasonably designed to comply with the Bank Secrecy Act and applicable Crime Enforcement Network regulation.” Financial”.
The second enforcement action alleged that DIMA “made materially misleading statements about its controls for incorporating ESG factors into research and investment recommendations for ESG integrated products,” the SEC said.
Without admitting or denying the SEC’s findings, Deutsche Bank’s (DB) DIMA agreed to cease and desist orders for both actions and to pay a $6 million fine for the AML action and a $19 million fine for the penalty for alleged ESG misstatements.
Allegations of DWS greenwashing had already been raised years ago. In August 2021, the SEC began investigating DWS’s statements about its sustainable investment criteria. At the time, the company denied allegations that it had overstated ESG assets. In May 2022, German authorities raided the offices of Deutsche Bank (DB) and DWS as part of their investigation into the matter.
“Here, DWS advertised that ESG was in its ‘DNA,’ but, as determined by the SEC order, its investment professionals did not follow the ESG investment processes it marketed,” said Sanjay Wadhwa, deputy director of the Division of Enforcement. and SEC Control. head of its Climate and ESG Working Group.
