	former herstatt dealer can be sued court rules the former chief currency dealer of herstatt bank which collapsed in on foreign exchange speculation in west germany s biggest banking crash can stand trial for damages a court ruled the court overturned a claim by danny dattel that a case for damages should not be allowed after such a long interval herstatt creditors are seeking mln marks from dattel whom they accuse of causing losses at the bank of over mln marks by manipulating forward foreign exchange contracts the crash of the private herstatt bank with losses of over one billion marks stunned west germany s business community and led to a tightening of banking regulations the losses were even greater than the mln marks announced recently by volkswagen as a result of fraud in currency transactions ivan herstatt managing director of the bank when it collapsed was sentenced to four and a half years in prison in but appealed six other people associated with the bank were jailed in but dattel was freed from prosecution after he produced medical evidence of paranoia caused by nazi persecution during his childhood which might have led him to take his own life reuter 
