(Bloomberg) — Deutsche Bank AG and five ex-managers ended mediation proceedings without reaching common ground in a dispute over allegations the bank acted wrongfully in a criminal case that they say harmed their careers.

As the mediation has failed it’s now more likely the former employees will file lawsuits in London, people familiar with the dispute said who asked not to be identified as the proceedings are private.

Michele Faissola is one of the former Deutsche Bank employees who allege the lender harmed their careers in an Italian criminal case over Banca Monte dei Paschi di Siena SpA. Dario Schiraldi, a former top manager from Deutsche bank’s asset and wealth management division, filed a suit in Frankfurt claiming around €152 million ($178 million). A hearing in the Frankfurt case is scheduled for December.

At the center of the claims is an audit report commissioned within Deutsche Bank in 2013. At the time, the now Chief Executive Officer, Christian Sewing, was put in charge of that review, people familiar with the case previously said. Deutsche Bank declined to comment.

The ex-staffers said the audit wasn’t handled neutrally and unfairly pinned the blame on them. It claimed they even manipulated the relevant market prices, ultimately leading to their convictions.

Deutsche Bank has previously defended the audit as fair and denied all the allegations.

In the original criminal case, Monte Paschi managers were accused of colluding with Deutsche Bank staff to hide losses at the Italian lender by using complex derivatives trades, leading to a misrepresentation of the firm’s finances between 2008 and 2012. The ex-Deutsche Bank managers were also charged with market manipulation. 

After they were first convicted in 2019, the six Deutsche Bank staffers were fully acquitted in 2022 by a Milan appeals court, which found that there were no grounds for trial. In October 2023, Italy’s Supreme Court upheld the acquittal. 

Deutsche Bank in March said in its annual report that five ex-Deutsche Bank employees involved in the Monte Paschi case threatened to bring claims in an English court and that one had sued in Frankfurt. The bank didn’t disclose their names. 

The lender added that it considers the claims “to be entirely without merit and will defend itself against them robustly, including disputing inflated, unrealistic alleged losses.”

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