Trump: New York Times report on Deutsche Bank transactions is 'phony'

Donald Trump has denied a New York Times report that Deutsche Bank employees flagged concerns over transactions involving legal entities controlled by the president and his son-in-law, Jared Kushner. He also said he does not receive money from Russia.

The Times reported on Sunday that anti-money-laundering specialists at Deutsche Bank recommended in 2016 and 2017 that multiple transactions be reported to a federal financial-crimes watchdog.

Citing five current and former Deutsche Bank employees, the report said executives at the German-based bank, which has lent billions to Trump and Kushner companies, rejected the advice and the reports were never filed.

In a barrage of tweets posted early on Monday, Trump described the reporting as “phony” and called Deutsche Bank “very good and highly professional”.

Deutsche Bank denied the report but it contributed to shares falling to a record low. Shares in the German lender were down by 2.8% at the time of writing.

It comes at a difficult time for Deutsche Bank, after it was forced to abandon merger plans with Commerzbank. It has also struggled to turn around its corporate and investment bank.

The Times said the transactions in question, some of which involved Trump’s now-defunct foundation, set off alerts in a computer system designed to detect illicit activity, according to the former bank employees.

Compliance staff members who reviewed the transactions prepared suspicious activity reports they believed should be sent to a unit of the US treasury that polices financial crimes, according to the newspaper.

Trump said the “fake media … always uses unnamed sources (because their sources don’t even exist)”. But one former Deutsche Bank employee, Tammy McFadden, who reviewed some of the transactions, spoke to the Times on the record. She said she was fired last year after raising concerns about the bank’s practices, the Times said.