for generous refinancing of German state-backed banks. With the beginning of the crisis, HSH had to report losses on their credit investment portfolio. In September 2008 HSH Nordbank announced further writedowns. As a direct consequence the CEO Hans Berger stepped down and in the following weeks HSH announced extensive restructuring. Branches in Copenhagen and Hong Kong were reduced to representations and new business was focused on the core region in northern Germany. In December 2008, HSH Nordbank was granted to issue up to 30 billion euros guaranteed notes under the German SoFFin program. One requirement that was imposed on HSH was to raise the capital ratio to at least 8%. On January 20, 2009, 3 billion euros 3 year guaranteed notes were issued. On February 24, 2009, HSH received new capital of EUR 3 billion and credit guarantees of 10 billion euros by the two main shareholders, the states of Hamburg and Schleswig-Holstein. The other shareholders, JC Flowers and the Savings Banks Association of Schleswig-Holstein, did not participate in the capital infusion. Together with this increase of its core-capital, HSH announced further restructuring. It planned to spin off non-strategic activities and the toxic asset portfolio into a—yet to be created—Bad Bank. In 2008, HSH Nordbank filed a claim with the New York Supreme Court against UBS over losses it says it suffered on a $500 million portfolio of collateralized debt obligations linked to the U.S. mortgage market. By 2012, the court found that HSH should have been able to conduct its own due diligence and dismissed the fraud claim, a decision that lawyers interpreted as having broader implications for investors seeking damages for losses incurred in the financial crisis. On April 9, 2009, president of supervisory board Wolfgang Peiner appointed Freshfields Bruckhaus Deringer to investigate recent management decisions of the Vorstand. On April 17, 2009, the supervisory board of HSH Nordbank relieved Frank Roth, member of the management board of his duties and started pressing criminal charges against him. The bank claims that Roth leaked strictly confidential information to outside parties. In May 2009 Standard & Poor’s downgraded HSH to BBB+. On October 13, 2009, Norddeutscher Rundfunk reported on a questionable CDO deal codenamed "Omega 55" between HSH Nordbank and BNP Paribas in late 2007, that eventually cost HSH Nordbank 500 million euros. Parts of that deal were not disclosed to the German Federal Financial Supervisory Authority (BaFin). Omega 55