Sal. Oppenheim – how the important private bank came to decline

But that’s not all: When the Arcandor department store group, with which Sal. Oppenheim was closely involved through its own shares and loans to major Arcandor shareholder Schickedanz, went bankrupt in 2009, the traditional store incurred huge losses and had to be rescued by Deutsche Bank. Oppenheim shareholders were sentenced to prison for serious breach of trust, and one of them had to go to prison. Esch, on the other hand, got away with fines that he had to pay for tax evasion and unauthorized banking transactions in his role as Oppenheim’s money manager – and continues to do real estate transactions.