Dark Towers: Deutsche Bank, Donald Trump, and an Epic Trail of Destruction

New York Times finance editor David Enrich's explosive exposé of the most scandalous bank in the world, revealing its shadowy ties to Donald Trump, Putin's Russia, and Nazi Germany

“A jaw-dropping financial thriller” —Philadelphia Inquirer

On a rainy Sunday in 2014, a senior executive at Deutsche Bank was found hanging in his London apartment. Bill Broeksmit had helped build the 150-year-old financial institution into a global colossus, and his sudden death was a mystery, made more so by the bank’s efforts to deter investigation. Broeksmit, it turned out, was a man who knew too much.

In Dark Towers, award-winning journalist David Enrich reveals the truth about Deutsche Bank and its epic path of devastation. Tracing the bank’s history back to its propping up of a default-prone American developer in the 1880s, helping the Nazis build Auschwitz, and wooing Eastern Bloc authoritarians, he shows how in the 1990s, via a succession of hard-charging executives, Deutsche made a fateful decision to pursue Wall Street riches, often at the expense of ethics and the law.

Soon, the bank was manipulating markets, violating international sanctions to aid terrorist regimes, scamming investors, defrauding regulators, and laundering money for Russian oligarchs. Ever desperate for an American foothold, Deutsche also started doing business with a self-promoting real estate magnate nearly every other bank in the world deemed too dangerous to touch: Donald Trump. Over the next twenty years, Deutsche executives loaned billions to Trump, the Kushner family, and an array of scandal-tarred clients, including convicted sex offender Jeffrey Epstein.

Dark Towers is the never-before-told saga of how Deutsche Bank became the global face of financial recklessness and criminality—the corporate equivalent of a weapon of mass destruction. It is also the story of a man who was consumed by fear of what he’d seen at the bank—and his son’s obsessive search for the secrets he kept.

• A History of Corruption: Follow a devastating timeline, from helping the Nazis build Auschwitz to laundering money for Russian oligarchs and aiding terrorist regimes.
• Donald Trump's Banker: Discover why Deutsche Bank was the only institution willing to lend billions to Donald Trump, the Kushner family, and Jeffrey Epstein when all other banks deemed them too dangerous to touch.
• Wall Street Ambition: Witness the fateful decision to chase Wall Street riches that led to market manipulation, investor scams, and a catastrophic loss of ethics.
• A Corrosive Corporate Culture: Explore the story of a man consumed by what he'd seen inside the bank—and his son's desperate search for the secrets behind his father's tragic death.