Ex-Deutsche Bank private bank employee admits to embezzlement of customer money

By Tom Sims

FRANKFURT, Aug 25 (Reuters) - A former Deutsche Bank employee on Tuesday told a Frankfurt court he was guilty of embezzling more than €600,000 ($699,480.00) of customer money as the head of private banking at the lender's flagship branch.

The admission of guilt in 21 transactions took place on the first day of a trial in a case that Deutsche Bank uncovered last year at a branch at the base of the bank's global headquarters.

"I worked for years in a profession in which trust is the only true capital. I abused this trust. I am guilty for every one of the transactions," the defendant said in a statement read by his lawyer Constantin Schmid.

The defendant had worked at Deutsche Bank since 2008. He transferred much of the money to a brokerage account and lost much of it in speculative investments.

He said through the lawyer that he undertook the fraud as family expenses grew and that he always intended to return the money.

Deutsche Bank said the handful of customers had been fully compensated.

"Deutsche Bank regrets this incident and terminated the employee involved with immediate effect," Deutsche Bank said.

"Since then, the bank has further strengthened its existing control mechanisms and increased awareness of such fraud schemes across its sales and branch network through targeted measures."

($1 = 0.8578 euros)

(Reporting by Tom Sims, Editing by Friederike Heine and Miranda Murray)