Deutsche Bank AG's top executive has been acquitted of charges that he wasted shareholders' money as a director of the phone company Mannesmann AG.
Josef Ackermann was found not guilty of breach of trust. The verdict, announced Thursday, ended Germany's first effort to jail managers for excessive bonuses.
Five other defendants were also cleared of charges related to payments made during Vodafone Group PLC's $189 billion takeover of Mannesmann in 2000.
Since January, Mr. Ackermann spent as many as two days a week running Europe's third-biggest banking company from Dusseldorf's regional courthouse and a nearby office, 140 miles from Deutsche's Frankfurt headquarters. He helped it manage two earnings reports, consider buying Germany's most popular retail bank, and oversee the country's largest initial share sale in more than three years
If he had been convicted, Mr. Ackermann would have faced as much as 10 years in prison.Bloomberg News
