Germany's most powerful banker, Deutsche Bank chairman Mr Josef Ackermann, went on trial yesterday charged with breach of trust arising from Vodafone's €148 billion takeover of Mannesmann four years ago.
He was joined in room L111 of Düsseldorf state court by Mannesmann chief executive Mr Klaus Esser and four former board members to face criminal charges that they improperly accepted more than €60 million in bonuses after agreeing to Vodafone's hostile takeover bid.
Lawyers representing disgruntled shareholders claim the board only accepted the bid after being effectively paid off and have asked the court to rule whether in doing so they breached shareholder "trust" law.
Mr Ackermann, a member of the supervisory board at the time, has always rejected the charges out of hand.
"This must be the only country where people who are successful and who create value have to go to court because of it," said Mr Ackermann (54) yesterday, making a great effort to smile broadly for the waiting cameras as he entered the wood-panelled court room just before 9 a.m. yesterday.
His lawyer, Mr Eberhard Kempf, summed up the attitude of his client to the proceedings: "The fastest way out of here is the best way."
But Mr Esser, who received a €15 million bonus and additional severance pay of €14 million from the deal, said: "I will not call for the trial to be stopped because I acted perfectly correctly and we're here to prove it."
The anticipation surrounding what has been called the corporate trial of the century shows the shock waves that, four years on, continue to be felt from the hostile takeover of the 111-year-old Mannesmann concern.
All of the accused are well-known figures from the business pages of German newspapers, such as former head of the supervisory board Mr Joachim Funk and Mr Klaus Zwickel, the former leader of Germany's powerful IG Metall steelworkers' union. Mr Zwickel always said he was always firmly opposed to "casino capitalism" yet now stands accused of improperly approving the largest corporate pay-off in German history.
Lawyers acting on behalf of small shareholders began an inquiry into the takeover in February 2000, suspicious of how board members suddenly agreed to Vodafone's terms after an epic three-month struggle.
The trial got under way yesterday morning with the court rejecting an application from Mr Ackermann's lawyer that it had no authority to hear the case.
The trial is expected to last at least six months and lawyers will call more than 60 witnesses. If found guilty, the board members face a maximum 10-year jail sentence, although imprisonment is seen as highly unlikely.
