A mid-level executive sacked by Deutsche Bank over a spying scandal has alleged that colleagues above and around him knew “from the beginning” about a plan hatched in 2006 to find out more about a dissident shareholder.

A lawyer for Wolfram Schmitt, formerly the bank’s global head of investor relations, claimed the bank’s legal unit and a senior communications executive knew that Clemens Börsig, Deutsche’s chairman, had requested more information about the investor.