In a development reminiscent of the Hewlett Packard spying scandal from 2006, the German press is reporting that Deutsche Bank spied on certain of its board members and a “troublesome shareholder,” as well. According to Spiegel Online, an investigation commissioned by Deutsche Bank that resulted in a 150-page report by law firm Cleary Gottlieb Steen & Hamilton “has revealed that the bank spied on several of its management board members, supervisory board members and on at least one shareholder.”

Spiegel reports that in 2001, Gerald Herrmann, who then had a seat on Deutsche Bank’s supervisory board, was suspected of having leaked the bank’s third-quarter results to Reuters.  The bank’s Corporate Security department reacted by hiring external detectives to monitor him. In addition, the bank investigated members of its management board.  In 2006, the internal security department reportedly was told to check contacts between board members and Munich-based media magnate Leo Kirch and his associates.  This was supposedly in response to legal action brought by Kirch, who blamed former Deutsche Bank CEO Rolf Breuer for the collapse of his company, and who had somehow had managed to obtain sensitive information from within Deutsche Bank’s management.

Finally, Spiegel reports, the bank also had external people investigate Michael Bohndorf, a shareholder believed to have links with Kirch who was apparently a gadfly and litigant against the bank:

The investigators compiled detailed reports on his movements and even looked into whether he had any personal weaknesses: alcohol, gambling, women? One insider reports that the agency resorted to hiring women to test him.

The looming issue for Deutsche Bank following the law firm’s issuance of its report is whether any laws were broken.  German data protection officials, financial regulator BaFin, and possibly even the public prosecutor’s office in Frankfurt may now be examining this question, Spiegel reports, and “many members of Deutsche Bank’s supervisory board have little doubt that laws were broken.”