Hostname: page-component-586b7cd67f-2brh9 Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-11-25T04:14:16.356Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false

Financial Crisis and German Criminal Law: Managers' Responsibility for Highly-Speculative Trading in Obscure Asset-Backed Securities Based on American Subprime Mortgages

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  06 March 2019

Extract

Core share and HTML view are not available for this content. However, as you have access to this content, a full PDF is available via the ‘Save PDF’ action button.

“Should bankers be publicly hanged for what they have done?” During a visit to Abu Dhabi in March 2009, the author came upon this sarcastic question while reading the well-known United Arab Emirates' journal “The National.” The aforesaid question was part of an interview with Paul Koster, chief executive of the Dubai Financial Services Authority, concerning the financial crisis. He answered in the negative by saying, “There will be court cases, but public hanging is a bit extreme.” His statement has, in a way, anticipated the result of the paper at hand: There should be criminal proceedings in Germany as well; however, they should not result in draconian criminal consequences.

Type
Articles
Copyright
Copyright © 2010 by German Law Journal GbR 

References

1 See Rupert Wright and Sara Hamdan, Time is Right for Regulator, The National, March 26, 2009, at page 3.Google Scholar

2 See Jörg Eigendorf and Olaf Gersemann, The Procrastinators of the Magic Mountain, Die Welt, January 30, 2009, at page 3.Google Scholar

3 See infra Part C, II 1, III Firstly, Fourthly as to this decisive aspect (lack of sufficient information).Google Scholar

4 Ulrich Clauss, Courage to Error: Christian Wulff, Die Welt, March 3, 2009.Google Scholar

5 Bank Managers Have to Reckon With Large Criminal Liability, Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung, May 27, 2009, at page 21.Google Scholar

6 See infra Part B, I.Google Scholar

7 Bank Managers, supra note 5.Google Scholar

8 See Volker Krey, German Criminal Law General Part, Textbook in German and English [Volume I: Basics], margin nos. 118, 129, 134138, 139, 140, 142–144, 146 (2002) (concerning such purposes of punishment).Google Scholar

9 See id. margin nos. 127, 128, 144, 146 (relating to deterrence as purpose of punishment).Google Scholar

10 See, Joachim Jahn, Two Years Probation for Zumwinkel, Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung, March 5, 2010, at http://www.fazfinance.net/Aktuell/Steuern-und-Recht/Zwei-Jahre-Bewaehrungsstrafe-fuer-Zumwinkel-4498.html (arresting the accused in this way, was rightly criticized by the trial court in the criminal proceedings against Wolfgang Zumwinkel).Google Scholar

11 See infra, Part Three, IV. (regarding an important exception that recently occurred where the public prosecution in charge carried out searches and seizures at the Landesbank Baden-Württemberg December, 7th 2009).Google Scholar

12 See infra, Part C, II 4, III Fourthly.Google Scholar

13 See supra, Part A, I (in the context of footnote 5).Google Scholar

14 See Marcus Lutter, Banking Crisis and Board Liability, 30 Zeitschrift für Wirtschaftsrecht 197, 199 (2009).Google Scholar

15 See German Banks Risk 816 Billion Euros, WirtschaftsWoche, April 25, 2009, at http://www.wiwo.de/unternehmen-maerkte/risiken-deutscher-banken-bei-816-milliarden-euro-395230/.Google Scholar

16 See Merrill Lynch Study: Billions Tied Up in German Banks, Handelsblatt, October 18, 2009, at http://www.handelsblatt.com/finanzen/aktienanalysen/merrill-lynch-studie-milliarden-wertberichtigungsbedarf-bei-deutschen-banken;2470428.Google Scholar

17 See supra, note 14 at 198.Google Scholar

18 See Deutsche Bank Nat'l Trust Co. v. Steele, 2008 WL 111227 (S.D. Ohio 2008). In the meantime, an increasing number of US-Courts have required the original mortgage certificates as basis for enforcing measures.Google Scholar

19 Emphases added by the author.Google Scholar

20 Volker Krey & Uwe Hellmann, Vermögensdelikte, in Strafrecht Besonderer Teil [Band 2], margin nos. 541, 545 (15th ed. 2008).Google Scholar

21 Emphasis added by the author.Google Scholar

22 See Nikolaus Bosch and Knut Werner Lange, Unternehmerischer Handlungsspielraum des Vorstandes zwischen zivilrechtlicher Verantwortung und strafrechtlicher Sanktion, 64 Juristenzeitung 225, 229 (2009). See also Hopt and Roth, § 93, in Großkommentar zum Aktiengesetz, margin no. 25 (4th ed., 2009).Google Scholar

23 See supra Part C, II, 1. The insight that the mentioned first modality of breach of trust requires such Vermögensbetreuungspflicht as well is prevailing legal opinion in case law and among legal scholars. See also Krey/Hellmann, supra note 20, at margin no. 541–543.Google Scholar

24 BVerfG, Neue Zeitschrift für Strafrecht 560 (2009) (affirmative in principle); BGHSt 53, 199 (203, 204) (answering in the negative inter alia).Google Scholar

25 See BGHSt 53, 199 (202, 203). See also Bundesgerischtshof Strafsachen, 3 StR 576/08, from 13 August 2009, margin no. 25, available at http://www.bundesgerichtshof.de.Google Scholar

26 Volker Krey, German Criminal Law General Part, Textbook in German and English [Volume II], margin nos. 331, 336, 337, 346364 (2003).Google Scholar

27 See id. margin nos. 336, 358.Google Scholar

28 See id. margin nos. 346 et seq., 349, 353, 358 et seq. Google Scholar

29 See id. margin no. 364.Google Scholar

30 See Carolin Wever, Fahrlässigkeit und Vertrauen im Rahmen der arbeitsteiligen Medizin, in Vergleichende Betrachtungen zum materiellen Strafrecht… in Deutschland und im anglo-amerikanischen Rechtskreis 121–139 (2005) (referencing Anglo-American law).Google Scholar

31 Supra note 26, at margin no. 359.Google Scholar

32 Lutter, supra note 14, at 198.Google Scholar

33 See supra, Part C, II, 2.Google Scholar

34 See supra, Part C, II, 3 in connection with footnote 25.Google Scholar

35 See supra, Part A, II.Google Scholar

36 See supra, Part C, III, Firstly.Google Scholar

37 See supra, Part A, II; see also Klaus Lüderssen, Finanzmarktkrise, Risikomanagement und Strafrecht, Strafverteidiger 486, 492 (2009).Google Scholar

38 But see id. at 487 and 494 (dissenting Lüderssen). In his opinion both, the legal and economic aspects were absolutely not clarified and therefore the criminal courts had to contain themselves. However, this standpoint is not convincing as demonstrated above; in addition, it has to be emphasized that in Germany every transaction by banks has to be documented in records.Google Scholar

39 See Strafgesetzbuch (StGB - German Criminal Code) § 56 b subs. 2 no 2. In connection with the obligation (Auflage) to pay a certain sum of money to the treasury.Google Scholar

40 See Strafprozessordnung (StPO - German Criminal Procedure Code) § 153. See also Volker Krey, The Public Prosecution's Role in Criminal Proceedings under the Rule of Law, 46 Rechtspolitisches Forum (Legal Policy Forum) 10 (Institut für Rechtspolitik an der Universität Trier ed., 2009).Google Scholar

41 See Embezzlement Suspicion: Police Comb through CBBW, Süddeutsche Zeitung, December 7, 2009, available at http://www.sueddeutsche.de/finanzen/501/496813/text/.Google Scholar