Complaint Alleges Germany’s Largest Public Pension Fund Directed Its U.S. Investments, Then
Blamed Its Asset Manager for Losses of BVK’s Own Making
DENVER and MUNICH, Sept. 1, 2026 /PRNewswire/ — Deutsche Finance America LLC and DF Deutsche Finance Holding AG, doing business as Deutsche Finance Group (together, “Deutsche Finance” or “DF”), announced today that they filed suit today in Delaware State Superior Court against Bayerische Versorgungskammer (“BVK”), Germany’s largest public-law pension group. The complaint seeks to hold BVK legally accountable for its mismanagement of a nearly $2 billion U.S. real estate portfolio and for a subsequent campaign of false and defamatory statements that blamed DF for losses of BVK’s own making.
The complaint asserts five claims against BVK: breach of contract; defamation; deceptive trade practices under the Delaware Deceptive Trade Practices Act; tortious interference with the contract; and tortious interference with prospective business relations.
BVK manages pension capital for approximately 2.8 million individuals in Germany. According to the complaint, BVK invested close to $2 billion in U.S. real estate (spanning projects in California, Illinois, Florida and New York) beginning more than a decade ago, with DF serving as asset manager. The complaint alleges that BVK routinely exceeded the bounds of a passive institutional investor as it selected properties, approved investments, negotiated fees, and directed leasing, financing and pricing decisions at the individual property level. The complaint further claims that BVK then instructed DF and the fund’s independent managers to carry out decisions BVK had ineptly made.
The complaint also alleges that when U.S. commercial real estate markets softened beginning in 2020, BVK – the only party with authority to approve the budgets, financing and leases needed to protect the portfolio – failed to act, contributing to losses the complaint estimates at approximately €853 million (or $988 million) across BVK’s holdings. Rather than accept responsibility, BVK mounted a public relations campaign to dishonestly shift blame for its own “severe incompetence” to DF, including statements to influential media outlets in Germany, German regulatory authorities, the Bavarian Parliament and BVK’s own beneficiaries. These statements clearly and falsely asserted that DF, not BVK, was responsible for selecting the underperforming investments and for the resulting losses.
The complaint also details how BVK used its financial leverage against DF, demanding in December 2025 that DF exit its management role at the Transamerica Pyramid in San Francisco, CA “with immediate effect and without receiving any compensation payment,” and subsequently withholding more than $31 million in fees contractually guaranteed to DF. These demands occurred even as BVK paid a co-manager on the Transamerica Pyramid project more than $45 million in comparable fees under an identical contract provision.
Deutsche Finance is seeking compensatory damages to be determined at a jury trial. DF is represented in this matter by the U.S. law firm of Quinn Emanuel Urquhart & Sullivan, LLP.
About Deutsche Finance Group
Deutsche Finance Group is a Munich-based global investment management firm specializing in private market real estate and infrastructure investments, serving tens of thousands of institutional and retail investors and insurance companies. Deutsche Finance America LLC, established in 2018 and based in Denver, Colorado, serves as Deutsche Finance Group’s private equity platform for U.S. real estate, sourcing, structuring and managing direct real estate investments on behalf of the firm’s institutional client accounts and managed funds.
Media Contact:
Eric Andrus and Alana Abramson
KARV
DFMedia@KARV.global
View original content:SOURCE Deutsche Finance America LLC; Deutsche Finance Group
