The CEO of Germany’s top asset management company, DWS Group, resigned hours after the company’s Frankfurt office was attacked by police on charges of greening.
DWS said in a statement Wednesday morning that Asoka Vörman, the chief executive since the end of 2018, will step down on June 10, the day after the group’s annual shareholders’ meeting.
He will be replaced by Stefan Hoops, who previously headed the corporate bank at Deutsche Bank, the majority owner of DWS, which owns an 80% stake. Hoops will be replaced by British-born David Lynn, who currently heads Deutsche’s corporate business in the Asia-Pacific region.
The change of executive came shortly after about 50 German police raided the offices of DWS and Deutsche Bank in central Frankfurt on Tuesday as part of an investigation into a potential fraud with a prospectus in the asset manager. The search involved prosecutors from Frankfurt, federal police and officials from the German financial regulator BaFin.
BaFin launched an investigation into DWS last year, following a similar investigation by the US Securities and Exchange Commission, sparked by allegations by former DWS CEO Desiree Fixler.
Fixler said the company had made misleading statements in its 2020 annual report over allegations that more than half of the group’s $ 900 billion assets were invested in environmental, social and management criteria.
DWS denied any wrongdoing, but changed its ESG criteria following Fixler’s revelations. In its annual report for 2021, published in March 2022, DWS reported only 115 billion euros in “ESG assets” for 2021 – 75 percent less than a year earlier, when it stated that 459 billion euro in assets are “integrated into the ESG”.
Shares of the group fell nearly 6% on Tuesday after the attack.
Worman’s replacement as a result of the green-laundering attack came months after the Financial Times revealed that Deutsche Bank was investigating a 160,000-euro payment made by a senior banker’s client when he was the head of the lender’s private client business. The CEO said the transfer was part of a failed attempt to buy Porsche.
Vörman also faced criticism for using his personal email address for business purposes during his stay at Deutsche.
In a statement issued by DWS, Vörman said he was leaving “to clear the way for a new beginning” as “the accusations against DWS and me in recent months have become a burden on the company as well as my family”.
Recommended
Carl von Rohr, chairman of DWS, said Wöhrmann had played a “leading role” in the bank’s asset management operation in recent years. “Under his leadership, DWS has expanded its market position and performed well in a challenging environment recently,” he said.
Add Comment