Deutsche Bank SPAC Banker Who Didn’t Attend The Strip Club Gets A Job

One of the Deutsche Bank SPAC bankers who lost his job last month following an investigation into a visit to a strip club classified as a business expense, has already started a new job with a more important title.

Bloomberg reported last month that Brandon Sun, the former head of Deutsche’s SPAC advisory, would join Cohen and Company, an investment bank that describes itself as “a financial services firm specializing in fixed income and , more recently, in SPAC markets”. Sun’s LinkedIn profile shows he’s just arrived. A simple director at DB, Sun is an MD at Cohen.

As banks like Goldman Sachs and Citi pause work on SPAC deals pending SEC qualification of rules governing the market, smaller banks like Cohen and Company appear to be doubling down. Cohen’s boutique investment bank focuses on SPAC clients and works particularly in the fintech space.

Sun was one of four Deutsche Bank bankers fired over the strip club incident. The others, Ben Darsney, head of equity capital markets in the Americas, Ravi Raghunathan, an MD, and Daniel Gaona, a partner, have not yet been rehired. Sun, who had been with Deutsche Bank for nearly 10 years, did not respond to a request for comment for this article. It is understood that he did not actually attend the club and would simply have been involved in the subsequent expense report.

Sun’s rapid reappearance suggests that there are still SPAC jobs, but perhaps not at the big banks. The SEC is expected to clarify its rules regarding SPACs in the coming months, and there is still a lot of work to be done in the sector, with many SPACs listed in recent years now looking to invest their money. “These are some of the smartest, shrewdest and best capitalized sponsors in the world,” said an industry banker.

He added that laid off DB bankers had been treated harshly by the bank. They reportedly paid for the meal in the restaurant allied to the strip club using a company card, but intended to cover the costs themselves later.

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