Germany closed a high-profile corruption case in a Hesse state court that could have shed light on a controversial Russian beneficial owner.
German authorities settled with four current or former Commerzbank AG executives and a Danish lawyer who were charged in December with helping former Russian Telecommunications Minister Leonid Reiman, a close associate of Russian President Vladimir Putin, sell telecom assets that Reiman had improperly transferred to himself from the Russian state. All of them denied the charges.
Under the settlement, four defendants will pay between EUR5,00o to EUR40,000 ($6,500 to $52,000) in exchange for dropping the charge. Charges against the fifth defendant, a banker still employed by Commerzbank, were dropped because the statute of limitations had expired, the spokesman said.
