Deutsche Bank Says Key E-Mails Are Missing

Deutsche Bank has told California regulators that some e-mail messages being sought in a wide-ranging probe of stock analysts can’t be turned over because they couldn’t be recovered from the company’s computer systems, a state official said Wednesday.

The e-mails appear to have been erased from the German bank’s computers, said Andre Pineda, deputy commissioner of the California Department of Corporations.

The state is trying to determine whether the apparent erasure was a mistake by technology personnel or was done purposefully to avoid the handing over of potentially incriminating documents, Pineda said.

California is investigating Deutsche Bank as part of broad state and federal probes into analyst conflicts during the bull market. It was revealed earlier this month that, because of an apparent computer glitch, the bank had not turned over all the evidence sought by regulators. That could prevent Deutsche from taking part in an industrywide settlement expected to be announced Monday.

“The late production of these e-mails was inadvertent. We have cooperated fully with the regulators to correct this oversight in an expeditious manner,” the company said.