It’s good practice to stay close to your stakeholders – but not too close. Wolfram Schmitt, the head of investor relations at Deutsche Bank has learnt that the hard way, having lost his job after an investigation into privacy violations.

Wolfram Schmitt was relieved of his post yesterday (22 July) after a probe by the bank found that “questionable” surveillance activities took place between 2001 and 2007, including the monitoring of a shareholder after the annual meeting in 2006. Schmitt and Rafael Schenz, head of security in Germany, allegedly hired private investigators to bug Michael Bohndorf, an investor who had sued the bank. Schenz has also been dismissed.

Deutsche first revealed it might have broken data protection laws in May, when it hired law firm Cleary, Gottlieb Steen & Hamilton to carry out an internal investigation. The final report will detail four instances of suspected abuse. Two of those four cases have been referred by the Data Protection Authority to prosecutors, who are now examining whether to open a criminal probe into possible privacy abuses at the bank.

Wolfram Schmitt is a former chairman of DIRK, the German investor relations society.

Deutsche Bank have declined to comment further until the internal report is concluded. DIRK also declined to comment.