Armenian Heirs v Deutsche Bank A.G. and Dresdner Bank A.G.
Armenian Heirs File Lawsuit Against German Banks
Heirs of Armenians killed 91 years ago in the Turkish Ottoman Empire sued Deutsche Bank A.G. and Dresdner Bank A.G. on January 13, 2006, claiming the German banks owe them millions of dollars and other assets deposited by their ancestors.
The class-action lawsuit was filed in Superior Court on behalf of seven Armenians living in Southern California. It is the latest bid by Armenians in the United States to recover assets they believe belonged to some 1.5 million Armenians who perished in a genocide beginning in 1915.
The lawsuit seeks to recover an unspecified millions of dollars for assets such as gold, cash and jewelry that the Armenian descendants claim were deposited by thousands of their ancestors at the banks' Turkish branches or otherwise looted by the Ottoman Turkish government and later transferred to European banks. The lawsuit claims the banks also are accused of concealing and preventing the funds from being recovered by the account holders' heirs.
"After the genocide, you had two groups of people: You had families completely wiped out and you had families who simply escaped," said an attorney representing the heirs. "Neither were able to get their assets out of the bank ... and 91 years later, we want to make it right."
