WASHINGTON (dpa-AFX) - Deutsche Bank fund company DWS will pay a total of $25 million to the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) for misrepresentations about "green" investments and insufficient money laundering controls. The SEC further announced Monday that DWS is paying "for violations of anti-money laundering guidelines and misrepresentations about ESG investments." To settle the charges, DWS had agreed to pay $25 million (23.5 million euros), it said.

DWS had been accused of selling so-called green financial products as "greener" than they actually are. Because of these "greenwashing" allegations, there were also investigations by the supervisory and criminal authorities. The investigations were initiated by the former DWS sustainability officer Desiree Fixler, who publicly criticized her former employer. DWS had denied the accusations. ESG stands for Environment, Social and Governance and is intended to indicate the attention paid to ecological and social aspects in companies.

The SEC said DWS failed to develop an anti-money laundering program for investment funds. It also said misstatements were made regarding the ESG investment process. Without admitting or denying the SEC's findings, DWS had agreed to pay $6 million over the anti-money laundering programs and a high of $19 million over the erroneous ESG disclosures.

The environmental protection organization Greenpeace sees it as a success that "greenwashing" finally has criminal consequences: "The heavy fine imposed on DWS by the powerful U.S. financial regulator SEC clearly shows: consumer deception on environmental issues is not a trivial offense," said financial expert Mauricio Vargas./sl/DP/he