Frankfurt Banks in Huge Corruption Scandal

More than 40 people are suspected of having paid or accepted millions of euros in bribes for real estate and construction deals, the Frankfurt district authority said Thursday, confirming a report in the German mass-circulation daily Bild. The suspects, including top managers at real estate funds, investment funds and banks as well as lawyers and notaries, are thought to have been part of a network of corrupt industry employees which has been in operation for years. Deka Immobilien Investment, Germany's largest provider of open-ended real estate funds, suspended its managing director, Michael Koch, who has been implicated in the scandal. Earlier this year, a manager at Deutsche Bank subsidiary DB Real Estate was sentenced to six years in jail for corruption and another was arrested. All three cases are linked, the district attorney has said.