Doepfner Fails to Back Claim Deutsche Bank Sought to Wreck Kirch
- Kirch, options discussed at meeting, Axel Springer CEO says
- Doepfner and Friede Springer testfiy in Munich fraud trial
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Prosecutors in the Deutsche Bank AG fraud trial failed to get backing from Axel Springer AG Chief Executive Officer Mathias Doepfner on their claims bank executives plotted the collapse of Leo Kirch’s media empire in 2002.
Doepfner, 52, who testified as a witness at the Munich trial on Tuesday, told the court that then-Deutsche Bank Chief Executive Officer Rolf Breuer in early February 2002 met publisher Friede Springer to discuss the fate of a 40 percent stake Kirch held in Axel Springer at the time. But while Kirch’s financial difficulties were an issue, Doepfner said he doesn’t remember that Breuer brought up a "break-up plan" for the Kirch group.