DB - Deutsche Bank Aktiengesellschaft
7.19 +0.12 (1.63%)
Pre-Market: 4:43AM EDT
| Previous Close | 6.82 |
| Open | 6.93 |
| Bid | 0.00 x 28000 |
| Ask | 0.00 x 800 |
| Day's Range | 6.91 - 7.09 |
| 52 Week Range | 6.61 - 13.17 |
| Volume | 7,045,177 |
| Avg. Volume | 5,265,020 |
| Market Cap | 14.609B |
| Beta (3Y Monthly) | 1.47 |
| PE Ratio (TTM) | N/A |
| EPS (TTM) | -1.12 |
| Earnings Date | N/A |
| Forward Dividend & Yield | N/A (N/A) |
| Ex-Dividend Date | 2017-05-19 |
| 1y Target Est | 6.69 |
- Financial Times•5 hours ago
The linguistic slip-up that cost UBS some of its top Chinese investment banking clients
FT premium subscribers can click here to receive Due Diligence every day by email. One scoop to start: several of Renault and Nissan’s joint business functions have been quietly unwound, as the carmakers’ alliance crumbles in the absence of Carlos Ghosn, according to multiple current and former employees. Just about everyone has hurt China’s feelings at some point or another: Nike, Starbucks, Apple and Dolce & Gabbana are all offenders.
- Reuters•18 hours ago
Deutsche Bank considers replacing CFO: report
Deutsche Bank Chief Executive Christian Sewing is planning a major overhaul of top management, including replacing the finance chief, Bloomberg news agency reported on Tuesday. Citing an unnamed person close to the matter, Bloomberg said Sewing could remove James von Moltke as CFO. Separately, Germany business monthly Manager Magazin reported that Sewing was also discussing the possibility of replacing Garth Ritchie as head of investment banking to make the planned restructuring of the division a top priority.
- Financial Times•21 hours ago
FirstFT: Today’s top stories
— called Libra — with 28 partners, including Visa, Mastercard, Uber, Vodafone and Spotify, in a move that could catapult nascent blockchain technology into the mainstream and upend the financial services industry. Facebook’s move is the most significant effort yet to bring blockchain technology, which does not rely on a central authority to issue money, into the mainstream and comes after the launch of hundreds of digital currencies, not least the 10-year-old bitcoin. “We believe that people will increasingly trust decentralised forms of governance,” said Facebook and its partners in a statement announcing their proposal.
- Bloomberg•yesterday
Deutsche Bank’s Quiet Man Needs to Turn Up the Volume
(Bloomberg Opinion) -- Ever since Deutsche Bank AG abandoned talks to merge with Commerzbank AG in April, a drip-feed of information on what Germany’s biggest lender plans next has leaked out.For Chief Executive Officer Christian Sewing, the danger is that he finds most of his cards have been played well before he can unveil his overhaul at the end of next month. He can ill afford to disappoint investors. Deutsche Bank has presented four strategic overhauls in as many years, not one of which has been able to stop the shares from plumbing new record lows. The firm is valued at just one quarter of its tangible book value – the steepest discount among its peer group.This week, the Financial Times reported that Sewing will transfer about as much as 50 billion euros ($56 billion) of trading assets – mostly long-dated derivatives – into a so-called bad bank. The firm is also considering plans to close its equities and rates trading businesses outside Europe.Exiting U.S. equities and rates has been a long time coming. A retreat from the U.S. securities business is a shift many (including yours truly) have argued is worth pursuing in light of Deutsche Bank’s sub-scale presence in the market. Global equities has been a sore spot for the firm, racking up annual losses of about 600 million euros, according to estimates from JPMorgan Chase & Co.What investors are still missing, though, is a clearer sense of how a smaller footprint would help restore profitability. Even if Deutsche Bank were able to finance the retreat from capital-intensive businesses without having to tap investors for more funds, sustainable returns remain a distant prospect.The bank had been counting on growing revenue this year to reach a 4% return on tangible equity. Given the dire outlook for trading in the second quarter after a contraction in the first, it’s hard to imagine that objective will be met.Return on tangible equity stood at 1.3% in the first quarter. Further cost-cuts beyond the investment bank may be necessary. According to JPMorgan, annual firm-wide costs may need to drop to 18 billion euros from 22.8 billion euros in 2018 for the firm to stand a chance of reaching a ROTE of 5% or more by 2021.What is also missing so far from Sewing’s vision is a sense of how and where the firm can grow as interest rates are likely to stay lower for longer. At home, the commercial bank, which generates about 40% of revenue, faces stiff competition from savings and cooperative lenders that is squeezing margins.Sewing is considering giving a boost to the firm’s transaction banking business, which tends to be overshadowed by the trading units, Bloomberg News reported in May. What that will mean in practice hasn’t been articulated. To keep up with the competition in payments and cash management, the lender will need to spend on technology. For the commitment to be credible, it will need to come with a big number attached.All that said, Sewing deserves to have a shot at putting his own mark on the company. The merger talks with Commerzbank have overshadowed a lot of his work so far. He has over-delivered on cost-cutting under the existing (if unambitious) plan. But with a German recession just around the corner, time isn’t on his side. He urgently needs to communicate his vision for Deutsche Bank – and on his own terms.To contact the author of this story: Elisa Martinuzzi at emartinuzzi@bloomberg.netTo contact the editor responsible for this story: Edward Evans at eevans3@bloomberg.netThis column does not necessarily reflect the opinion of the editorial board or Bloomberg LP and its owners.Elisa Martinuzzi is a Bloomberg Opinion columnist covering finance. She is a former managing editor for European finance at Bloomberg News.For more articles like this, please visit us at bloomberg.com/opinion©2019 Bloomberg L.P.
- Financial Times•yesterday
Basel’s second pillar has crumbled in bank hands
For approximately 10 years the Financial Times has reported stories concerning the travails of Deutsche Bank. Pillar 2 is the self-assessment carried out by a financial institution and to which the supervisor applies a critical review leading to supervisory actions that can include a demand for higher capital. There are reasons to question the effectiveness of this pillar in practice as there is little incentive for an institution to disrobe unseemly risk details in a transparent fashion.
- Financial Times•yesterday
Deutsche Bank seeks breathing space by slashing trading arm
In the years after the financial crisis, many of the world’s biggest lenders set up vast “bad banks” to cleanse trillions of dollars in toxic assets from their balance sheets. on Monday that Deutsche is seeking to divest a further €50bn of assets adjusted for riskiness on its balance sheet. This comes alongside a deep overhaul of its investment bank that may see swaths of its non-European equity and rates trading businesses shut down, combined with a sharper focus on transaction banking and private wealth management.
- Reuters•2 days ago
Deutsche Bank plans to pare U.S. equities business to skeleton operation - sources
Deutsche Bank plans to dramatically reduce the size of its U.S. equities business, leaving only a skeleton operation in place to service corporate and high-net-worth clients, three sources familiar with the matter told Reuters. Chief Executive Officer Christian Sewing is battling to convince investors he can turn around Germany's biggest lender, whose shares hit a record low this month. Members of Deutsche's supervisory board discussed those plans on a call last week and agreed that large-scale cuts were necessary in the bank's U.S. equities and rates trading businesses, the sources said.
- Reuters•2 days ago
Deutsche Bank plans to pare U.S. equities business to skeleton operation -sources
Deutsche Bank plans to dramatically reduce the size of its U.S. equities business, leaving only a skeleton operation in place to service corporate and high-net-worth clients, three sources familiar with the matter told Reuters. Chief Executive Officer Christian Sewing is battling to convince investors he can turn around Germany's biggest lender, whose shares hit a record low this month. Members of Deutsche's supervisory board discussed those plans on a call last week and agreed that large-scale cuts were necessary in the bank's U.S. equities and rates trading businesses, the sources said.
- Bloomberg•2 days ago
Deutsche Bank’s Top Executives Embroiled in German Tax Scandal
(Bloomberg) -- For over a decade, one of the biggest financial scandals in German history has been snaking its way through Deutsche Bank AG.Now, it’s approaching the highest levels of the German lender, with three key figures -- investment banking chief Garth Ritchie, former co-Chief Executive Officer Anshu Jain and his predecessor Josef Ackermann -- among 80 suspects linked to the bank and being probed by prosecutors in the so-called Cum-Ex affair, according to people familiar with the matter. For CEO Christian Sewing, who’s trying to turn the tide at Germany’s biggest bank after years of painful missteps, the escalation couldn’t come at a more precarious time.Deutsche Bank is just one of many firms tied to the scandal, and the company maintains it didn’t act as a buyer or seller in the Cum-Ex deals. But the German lender profited from servicing customers that specialized in such transactions, according to people familiar with a German criminal investigation and an internal review seen by Bloomberg.The finance giant had Cum-Ex clients who were loaned as much as 1 billion euros ($1.1 billion). During the height of the activity from 2008 to 2011, the bank took on clients who did nothing but such deals. A German probe found that Deutsche Bank even had a profit-sharing agreement with one firm that specialized in the transactions, according to people familiar with the findings. Among key figures involved in Cum-Ex work at Deutsche Bank, the people said, were Simon Pearson and Joe Penna, former managers who left the bank in 2009.Deutsche Bank said that it never “participated in an organized Cum-Ex market, neither as a short seller nor as a Cum-Ex buyer.” It acknowledges that “as a major participant in the capital markets, Deutsche Bank was involved in Cum-Ex transactions of its clients” and said it is cooperating with the authorities.“I was not personally involved in any Cum-Ex activity, and I am very confident that the investigation will show no personal wrongdoing by me,” Ritchie said in an email sent by the bank.Refund ClaimsThe controversial transactions -- widely reported to have cost German taxpayers more than 10 billion euros -- involved the sale of borrowed shares just before a company was due to pay a dividend. They allowed multiple investors to claim a refund on a dividend tax that was paid only once, according to German authorities. The practice was named after the Latin term cum/ex, meaning with/without, because the stocks were sold with and delivered without a dividend payment.Numerous probes are ongoing. On Monday, Frankfurt prosecutors raided residential and business locations in an investigation unrelated to Deutsche Bank.More: The Tax Dodge That Cost the German Treasury Billions of EurosDeutsche Bank profited by lending money to buyers and shares to short sellers in the transactions, said the people, asking not to be identified because the probe isn’t public. The company also acted as a custodian and issued tax certificates needed for the deals, they said.In 2008, Pearson was a managing director and Penna a director in Deutsche Bank’s London-based prime finance unit, according to an investigation the bank commissioned by Freshfields Bruckhaus Deringer LLP into its dealings with Nummus Financial GmbH. The law firm’s report, delivered in 2013 and seen by Bloomberg News, describes how Pearson brought on Nummus as a new client. Nummus specialized in Cum-Ex deals, and the men would have known the nature of its work because of the material they reviewed, according to the report.Nummus went through a customer acceptance procedure, with Deutsche Bank’s legal department reviewing the contracts and the credit risk management unit conducting due diligence, including a review of “the business model and the trading strategy,” according to the report. The bank granted the new client a credit rating, and as part of its prime brokerage arrangement, provided 15- to 20-fold leverage on the fund’s capital of 32.7 million euros, the report said.For the Freshfields review, Deutsche Bank had given the lawyers emails and messenger traffic of seven people working for the lender in London, including that of Ritchie, Pearson and Penna. Ritchie’s emails were searched for the terms "Nummus" and "GmbH" and were also filtered for emails sent by or addressed to Pearson, according to the report. The lawyers didn’t specify what individual results they got. The memo cites Ritchie’s job description at the time as "Managing Director, Management -- Europe".Ballance ConnectionAuthorities grew suspicious and refused to pay Nummus any tax refunds, according to a public filing. Last year, Deutsche Bank settled a probe by Frankfurt prosecutors into the Nummus work for 4 million euros. Cologne prosecutors are still probing the bank’s activities related to other investors and declined to comment.Pearson and Penna left Deutsche Bank in 2009 to join Ballance Group, an asset management company that advised funds and other market participants who engaged in Cum-Ex transactions. The men’s work and Ballance’s role are described in detail in an indictment Cologne prosecutors filed in April against two former London bankers who worked at Ballance, according to the people.On Monday, a court in Bonn said it had received the indictment, saying it covers 34 cases of aggravated tax evasion allegedly leading to losses of more than 440 million euros, but didn’t provide more details. The two bankers have helped uncover the role of others involved, people familiar with the probe said in January. The pair, who didn’t work at Deutsche Bank, was with UniCredit’s HVB unit before moving to Ballance.A German lawyer for Pearson declined to comment. Attempts to reach Penna were unsuccessful. Some Ballance units were dissolved. Others, which were renamed, don’t have listed phone numbers.Close TiesDeutsche Bank acted as the prime broker for several Cum-Ex investors who were Ballance clients, according to the probe’s findings. It granted one fund a loan of 942 million euros for the trades; another, 743 million euros. Deutsche Bank also had a profit-sharing agreement with Ballance in 2009 and 2010 under which it received 30% to 50% of the money the asset manager made, according to people familiar with the findings of the Cologne probe.After Penna and Pearson joined Ballance, Pearson maintained close ties with his former employer. Ballance Overseas Management Ltd., a London-based entity where he was a director, became a client of Deutsche Bank’s prime brokerage in February 2010 and had borrowed about 404 million euros within months, U.K. filings show. The company traded only with Deutsche Bank and other Ballance Group companies, according to a Ballance report for the year ended October 2010.Ballance also hired several other Deutsche Bank employees to work on the Cum-Ex deals. Some of the company’s units organized shares used by short sellers, cooperating with staff remaining at Deutsche Bank who are also being investigated, according to the people.German authorities say that dozens of banks and brokerages in London and other global financial hubs helped investors siphon off billions of euros from the national treasury with the transactions over the course of a decade. A 2012 reform of the tax code stopped the practice, and the current debate centers on whether the trades were legal before that. Prosecutors have been conducting a criminal probe into some of the biggest names in European and U.S. finance, looking at the roles played by banks, law firms and others.In a separate probe conducted by prosecutors in Frankfurt, law firm Freshfield’s offices were raided last week. The search, on Thursday, was related to previous work done for clients, the firm said in an emailed statement on Monday, adding that it was confident that the advice provided was legally sound. It’s the third raid of the Frankfurt offices of the firm over Cum-Ex. Two lawyers of the firm have become targets in the probe.(Updates with Freshfields raid in last paragraph.)To contact the reporters on this story: Karin Matussek in Berlin at kmatussek@bloomberg.net;Donal Griffin in London at dgriffin10@bloomberg.netTo contact the editors responsible for this story: Anthony Aarons at aaarons@bloomberg.net, ;Sree Vidya Bhaktavatsalam at sbhaktavatsa@bloomberg.net, Christopher Elser, Chris ReiterFor more articles like this, please visit us at bloomberg.com©2019 Bloomberg L.P.
- Bloomberg•2 days ago
Deutsche Bank Considers Closing U.S. Equities Trading in Revamp
(Bloomberg) -- Want the lowdown on European markets? In your inbox before the open, every day. Sign up here.A little over one year since Deutsche Bank AG Chief Executive Officer Christian Sewing unveiled his first turnaround plan, his second is taking shape.Sewing is zeroing in on another round of deep trading cuts that may result in the shuttering of U.S. equities trading, as well as the creation of a non-core unit to wind down as much as 50 billion euros ($56 billion) in unwanted assets, according to a person familiar with the matter. Cuts to the rates business are also likely, said the person, asking not to be identified in disclosing the private deliberations.A complete exit from U.S. equities trading isn’t the favored outcome at this point because the lender wants to be able to meet the needs of European clients seeking access to U.S. markets, the person said. Members of the supervisory board discussed options on a call last week, said another person.The measures would deepen cuts announced shortly after Sewing took over last year, which included a 25% headcount reduction in equities trading as well as cuts to rates trading. Those steps so far have failed to boost profitability as much as initially hoped, as markets remain challenging and past missteps continue to haunt the lender.The reported “plan looks far too modest to us,” said Andrew Lim, an analyst with Societe Generale SA, in a note. “We estimate Deutsche Bank is making very low profits or indeed losses in its trading businesses” that are likely to get worse as it loses market share.Bloomberg previously reported that Sewing plans to set up a non-core unit housing long-dated derivatives as part of “deep cuts” to the equities business, while focusing more on the transaction bank. Given the costs of the restructuring, the lender won’t meet its profitability goal for this year, according to Handelsblatt, which said that the equities business in Japan could also be cut. Headcount will fall more than previously communicated, the newspaper said, citing company insiders.“As we said at the annual general meeting on May 23, Deutsche Bank is working on measures to accelerate its transformation so as to improve its sustainable profitability,” a spokeswoman said by email on Monday. “We will update all stakeholders if and when required.”Shares of Germany’s largest lender rose 1.4% at 5:16 p.m. in Frankfurt trading. The stock is down 12% this year and reached a record low earlier this month.The non-core unit will likely end up holding between 30 billion and 50 billion euros of risk-weighted assets, said one of the people. Deutsche Bank had 347 billion euros in risk-weighted assets at the end of the first quarter. The Financial Times reported the figure earlier and said Deutsche Bank may cut or even close its equities trading business outside Europe.‘Tough Cuts’Non-core units, sometimes called “bad banks,” are set up by lenders to sell or wind down assets they no longer want to own, often hard-to-sell or risky holdings. They were used frequently after the financial crisis, and they can be helpful when banks exit a business so that investors can see better how the main operations perform. Deutsche Bank last set up a non-core unit in 2012, when it identified about 125 billion euros in risk-weighted assets it wanted to shed.Sewing has pledged “tough cuts” to the investment bank as he tries to reverse a share-price slide that left Deutsche Bank with the lowest price-to-book-value ratio of the 37 lenders in the Bloomberg Europe 500 Banks and Financial Services Index. The firm’s credit rating was lowered this month by Fitch Ratings, which could increase funding costs.The CEO is also tasked with restoring market confidence in Deutsche Bank following the breakdown of takeover talks with Commerzbank AG. Sewing had explored a merger with Commerzbank to end what Deutsche Bank has called a “vicious circle” of declining revenue, sticky expenses, a lowered credit rating and rising funding costs. The talks collapsed in April, leaving investors guessing what’s next.Deutsche Bank’s equities business is the smaller of its two main trading operations, with revenue of about 2 billion euros last year, compared with 5.4 billion euros from fixed income, which is considered a traditional strength of the bank. The equities unit is run by Peter Selman, a former Goldman Sachs Group Inc. partner brought on by Sewing’s predecessor John Cryan in 2017. Progress in fixing the business has been slow, with the unit incurring an estimated loss of about $750 million last year, people briefed on the matter have said.Transaction BankEquities trading has been a focus of cutbacks for some time. Cryan initially vowed to boost the unit but later, after a scare in 2016 led some hedge funds to pull money from the firm, pivoted the bank away from its focus on institutional clients toward corporate ones.Sewing accelerated that shift shortly after taking over in April last year, trimming staff and resources in the U.S. and severing ties with funds whose business wasn’t lucrative. He also scaled back U.S. rates sales and trading and reduced the corporate finance business in the U.S. and Asia.As part of the next strategy overhaul, Sewing is also considering giving more visibility to the transaction bank, which is usually overshadowed by the trading units, people familiar with the matter told Bloomberg in May. The idea is to give investors a better view of a relatively large and growing business to help improve Deutsche Bank’s low valuation, they said.(Updates with profitability target in sixth paragraph.)\--With assistance from Jan-Henrik Förster and Nicholas Comfort.To contact the reporter on this story: Steven Arons in Frankfurt at sarons@bloomberg.netTo contact the editors responsible for this story: Dale Crofts at dcrofts@bloomberg.net, Christian BaumgaertelFor more articles like this, please visit us at bloomberg.com©2019 Bloomberg L.P.
- Moody's•2 days ago
Moody's Fully Supported Municipal & IRB Deals
Announcement: Moody's Fully Supported Municipal& IRB Deals. Global Credit Research- 14 Jun 2019. New York, June 14, 2019-- ASSIGNMENTS:.
- Zacks•2 days ago
Deutsche Bank (DB) Continues Overhauling, To Create Bad Bank
Deutsche Bank (DB) might make cutbacks in the U.S. equities trading business and create a 'bad bank' -- a measure used by failed U.K. banks post the 2008 crisis.
- Market Exclusive•2 days ago
Market Morning: Hong Kong Rises Up, Fed Meets Wednesday, Deutsche Bad Bank, Boeing Mea Culpa
Hong Kong In Massive Show of Defiance Against Beijing Over a quarter of Hong Kong’s 7.4 million people marched against China’s hand-picked chief executive Carrie Lam over the weekend in protest against an extradition bill that would essentially allow Beijing to ship over anyone they wanted to stand trial in China for crimes against communism, […]The post Market Morning: Hong Kong Rises Up, Fed Meets Wednesday, Deutsche Bad Bank, Boeing Mea Culpa appeared first on Market Exclusive.
- TheStreet.com•2 days ago
Deutsche Bank Tops DAX As €50 Billion 'Bad Bank' Report Snaps Losing Streak
surged to the top of the German market Monday, helping financial sector shares pace gains around the region, following multiple reports that the troubled lender is ready to create a "bad bank" to house underperforming assets. The bad bank plan, first reported by the Financial Times, would form part of a broader overhaul for Deutsche Bank that would see it pull back from equity and fixed income trading outside of Europe as it moves to slim costs, reduce risk and return to profitability. The so-called "bad bank" portion of the plan, according to multiple media reports, would be designed to hive off around €50 billion worth of assets, mostly longer-date derivatives, from the lender's main business.
- Reuters•2 days ago
Deutsche Bank to set up 50 billion euro bad bank in revamp
Deutsche Bank is planning to overhaul its trading operations by creating a so-called bad bank to hold tens of billions of euros of non-core assets, a source close to the matter said on Monday. The measures are part of a significant restructuring of the investment bank, a major source of revenue for Germany's largest lender, which has struggled to generate sustainable profits since the 2008 financial crisis. Shares in Deutsche, which have recently traded at record lows, were up 1.4% in late trading in Frankfurt, shedding some of their gains but still topping the list of German blue-chip companies.
- Financial Times•2 days ago
Deutsche Bank to set up €50bn ‘bad bank’ as part of overhaul
Deutsche Bank is preparing a deep overhaul of its trading operations including the creation of a so-called bad bank to hold tens of billions of euros of assets as chief executive Christian Sewing shifts Germany’s biggest lender away from investment banking. The plan would see the bad bank house or sell assets valued by the German lender in its accounts at up to €50bn after adjusting for risk. The proposed bad bank, which is known internally as the non-core asset unit, will comprise mainly of long-dated derivatives, the people said.
- Reuters•2 days ago
Banking gains prod European shares higher
- MarketWatch•2 days ago
Deutsche Bank to create €50 billion 'bad bank': FT
Deutsche Bank AG plans to create a so-called "bad bank" to hold up to €50 billion ($56 billion) of poorly performing assets as part of plans for an extensive restructuring, the Financial Times reported Sunday. The bank also plans to shrink or close its stock and interest rate trading operations outside of continental Europe, the FT said, citing four persons with knowledge of the plan. Chief Executive Christian Sewing is expected to announce the plans when the bank released half-year results in July. Sources told the newspaper that the total number for the non-performing assets continues to shift around, from 30 billion to 50 billion, and could make up 14% of the bank's balance sheet. "Deutsche Bank is working on measures to accelerate its transformation so as to improve its sustainable profitability. We will update all stakeholders if and when required," the bank told the FT in a statement.
- Financial Times•2 days ago
Deutsche Bank: in the balance
Most chief executives prefer to build the balance sheet. There is more to play with and more assets to back loans for optimistic expansion plans. Deutsche Bank needs to push its costs down and find some way to cut back risk weighted assets.
- Reuters•3 days ago
UPDATE 1-Deutsche Bank to set up 50 bln euro bad bank -FT
Deutsche Bank is planning to overhaul its trading operations by creating a "bad bank" to hold tens of billions of euros of assets and shrinking or shutting its U.S. equity and trading businesses, the Financial Times reported on Sunday. With the creation of the bad bank, Chief Executive Officer Christian Sewing is shifting the German lender away from investment banking and focusing on transaction banking and private wealth management, the newspaper said. The bank is planning cuts at its U.S. equities business, including prime brokerage and equity derivatives, to win over shareholders unhappy about its performance, four sources familiar with the matter told Reuters in May.
- MarketWatch•6 days ago
Think 3% is small potatoes? It can eat your life savings
Unfortunately for investors, a 3% haircut in advisory fees and fund expenses—a level that’s all too common—makes a huge difference in how fast your wealth grows. If you add up all of the fees in your portfolio, it may reveal a “silent killer” that can devastate your account balances over your working career or a lengthy retirement. For example, let’s say your financial adviser or 401(k) plan provider charges an annual fee of 1% of assets under management.
- Financial Times•7 days ago
FirstFT: Today’s top stories
with a bill, which will allow criminal suspects for the first time to be extradited to mainland China. Opponents of the legislation fear it will allow China to extradite political opponents or others from the city on potentially trumped up charges.
