Germany's top banker, battling to clear his name over controversial bonuses he approved for Mannesmann executives, told a court on Thursday he acted within the law and had nothing to hide.
Deutsche Bank Chief Executive Josef Ackermann and five other former Mannesmann directors are being tried for "breach of trust" - wasting shareholders' money - in awarding multi-million euro bonuses to chief executive Klaus Esser and others after it was taken over by UK mobile giant Vodafone.
The landmark trial, held in a grubby post-war provincial courthouse, has rattled corporate Germany, and is portrayed by the defendants as an attack on attempts to reward success and encourage risk-taking among traditionally conservative firms.
"I don't know where there's supposed to be a legal problem," Ackermann, told the regional criminal court in Mannesmann's hometown Duesseldorf during his first 40-minute testimony.
"According to business law I have acted correctly," he said, adding Esser and his team received an extraordinary reward for an extraordinary job during the months-long take-over battle.
"We have made reasonable entrepreneurial decisions and we have not made formal mistakes or rushed things and we have not hidden anything," said Ackermann, wearing his trademark beaming smile as TV crews and reporters followed his every move outside the courtroom.
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