A Hamburg regional court issued an interim injunction barring Deutsche Welle from repeating two statements linking businessman Roman Abramovich to suspected money laundering and from publishing his photo alongside those claims, according to a certified court order dated April 8. The order was issued in case 324 O 117/26 by the Landgericht Hamburg.
Abramovich is a Russian-born billionaire businessman with Israeli citizenship who built his fortune in the privatization era that followed the collapse of the Soviet Union, most notably through oil and metals assets. He became widely known internationally as the owner of Chelsea Football Club from 2003 until its 2022 sale, a period in which the London club won multiple major trophies. Abramovich also served as governor of Russia’s Chukotka region from 2000 to 2008. Since Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine, sanctions have been imposed on him by Western governments over alleged ties to the Kremlin, ties he has denied.
The order referred to a January 28 Deutsche Welle article about raids on Deutsche Bank offices in Frankfurt and Berlin. Reuters reported at the time that German federal police searched Deutsche Bank sites as part of a money-laundering investigation led by Frankfurt prosecutors, focusing on unidentified individuals and Deutsche Bank employees over past dealings with foreign companies later suspected of being used for money laundering. The Financial Times separately reported that prosecutors were examining Deutsche Bank’s past dealings with companies associated with Abramovich.
In the Hamburg ruling, the court specifically prohibited Deutsche Welle from publishing statements that said searches were connected to Abramovich and that he could be involved in suspected money laundering. It also barred the broadcaster from using his image alongside either or both of those statements. The court ordered Deutsche Welle to bear the costs of the proceedings and said each violation could bring a fine of up to 250,000 euros or coercive detention if the fine could not be enforced.
The court said the report violated Abramovich’s personality rights under German law and found that the conditions for lawful suspicion reporting had not been met.
In its reasoning, the court said the article created the impression that Abramovich was involved in money laundering offenses and that Deutsche Welle had failed to sufficiently confront him with the allegations and obtain a response before publication. The judges also said that even if a news agency report were treated as a privileged source, that would not remove the duty to seek comment from the person affected.
The ruling was issued without an oral hearing because of urgency, according to the court order. It remains an interim injunction rather than a final judgment after a full trial, and the order states that Deutsche Welle can file an objection.
Abramovich’s name surfaced publicly in reporting around the Deutsche Bank probe in January. The Financial Times wrote that the investigation centered on whether Deutsche Bank had delayed suspicious activity reports tied to transactions from 2013 to 2018 involving foreign companies possibly linked to the Russian businessman. Reuters reported that prosecutors did not publicly identify the counterparties involved, while Deutsche Bank said it was cooperating with authorities.
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