Recently I wrote about how Deepak Moorjani of Deutsche Bank in Tokyo had blown the whistle on the bank's reckless culture of risk-taking. DB management is retaliating with legal action against Deepak. In a strange turn of events, the New York Times DealBook blog published Deepak's op'ed piece on on DB's culture of risk, but it soon mysteriously disappeared (http://dealbook.blogs.nytimes.com/2009/04/16/another-view-deutsche-banks-culture-of-risk/). I have written DealBook editor Andrew Ross Sorkin for an explanation; so far have not received any response from the newspaper. But you can read Deepak's piece on Tyler Darden's blog Zero Hedge
Tyler has taken up Deepak's cause, and has published a long article about the controversy, complete with the pertinent documents. Tyler notes that Deepak had cc'd German Chancellor Angela Merkel on several pieces of correspondence with Deutsche Bank:
Has Ms. Merkel taken these allegations seriously? The German bank,
that by some estimates, has a leverage ratio that far surpasses even
the wildest dreams of its U.S. counterparts, has been considered the
epitome of European systemic risk, and the prudent course of action for
not just her, but all DB executives (not to mention the gentlemen at
the Federal Reserve) would be to take all the warnings presented by Mr.
Moorjani and act upon them, instead of continuing to pursue allegedly
retaliatory litigation.
In the meantime, Mr. Moorjani's story
waits to be told. As I pointed out, the removal of his opinion letter
from Dealbook without a reason leaves many unanswered questions. The
questions only become louder if one considers the lack of response by
other mainstream media sources to capture this story and present it in
its entirety: as Mr. Moorjani points out, a dissemination of this case
could simply "offend powerful interests" and as such, various
media outlets would be loathe to shut out powerful and wealthy clients
from the ranks of sponsors and revenue generators. Zero Hedge does not
have that problem.
We certainly haven't heard the end of this scandal, and I will persist in demanding a response from the NYTImes.
Separately, a housing court judge in Cleveland is pursuing criminal charges against Deutsche Bank and other corporate owners of foreclosed properties in the city. The judge has written to Deutsche Bank CEO Josef Ackermann:
Judge Pianka has begun issuing notices to corporate property owners of
hearings to show why they should not be found in contempt of court. On
April 13, he issued a notice of such a hearing to Josef Ackermann, CEO
of Deutsche Bank, which is listed as the owner of more than 150
foreclosed homes in Cleveland. Deutsche Bank officials have not
appeared in cases for housing and health code violations, some dating
back two years, the city has brought against 11 bank-owned houses.
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I would guess that The Times pulled that piece out of fear of legal retaliation and other forms of action against them, such as withdrawing advertising. Besides, the public has no right to the truth!
What a shocker. I’m linking to this on my blog.
It’s very clear now what happened, not just at DB but throughout the financial sector. Clarifications such as Moorjani’s cannot be tolerated but must be hidden from public view.
Hattie, we know the NYTimes needs all the ad revenue it can get! Very sad turn of events for the Grey Lady.
They should be able to make some money from the Kindle version, which is .75 to download, including Sunday. Also available are FAZ (at only .75 a huge bargain, especially the cultural commentary), The Independent (also .75) and the International Herald Tribune $1.00.