In 2021, Deutsche Bank sustainability chief Desiree Fixler thought she was going to make millions after she blew the whistle with claims that the bank did not adhere to its goal of integrating ESG (environmental, social and governance) intoall investment decisions.Fixler- who worked within the bank's DWS Group asset management arm -became a witness for the SEC, which fined the bank's asset-management arm $19 million in 2023.

And had she actually gotten the SEC reward of 10% - 30%, it would have amounted to millions...

...however,because Fixler (who was fired)ranto theWall Street Journalbefore the SEC, they denied her a payout.

The Wall Street Journal previously reported Fixler’s concerns about Deutsche Bank’s ESG business in an August 2021 article.

DWS misled investors about how it integrated ESG criteria into its investing process, Fixler told the Journal. DWS told clients that every investment team used ESG factors to make decisions. Butshe found a case in which Wirecard AG, a German payments-service provider that went bankrupt in a fraud scandal, ended up in an actively managed ESG fund, which was supposed to promote companies with good governance.

She filed a complaint with the SEC three days after The Journal’s article appeared.She later spent over 100 hours walking the commission’s staff through Deutsche Bank’s ESG program and how investment firms screen for ESG risks in public companies, she said in an interview.

The SEC acknowledged in an order denying Fixler’s award request that it opened its investigation based on her statements to the Journal. Butit didn’t consider her cooperation to be “voluntary” because she didn’t approach the SEC first. -WSJ

"Where a claimant provides information to a media outlet, and commission staff learn of the allegations from the media outlet, a claimant has not provided the commission with information," the SEC wrote.

Fixler and her lawyer, Stephen Kohn, say the SEC's definition of "voluntary" does not comport with a plain-English meaning of the term, and discourages whistleblowers from using traditional methods of spreading concerns about wrongdoing - the media.

"This is a warning shot to every whistleblower who thinks about going to the press," said Fixler.

Source: ZeroHedge News