a group of private equity investors led by Cerberus and JC Flowers. Other funds involved were GoldenTree Asset Management and Centaurus. In addition, Austrian bank BAWAG also contributed. The transaction also saw the bank’s non-performing loan portfolio, principally shipping-related, sold to a special purpose vehicle set up by Cerberus, JC Flowers, GoldenTree and Centaurus at a price below its current book value. The sale of shares is subject to the approval of the European Commission and the European Central Bank. After its privatization, HSH Nordbank will also have to leave the deposit insurance scheme of Germany’s publicly owned banks and join the private sector plan. Hamburg and Schleswig-Holstein later said that total losses they incurred in their HSH investment would range from 10.8 billion to a maximum of 14 billion euros. In January 2019 a group of 18 bond investors sued HSH Nordbank for 1.4 billion euros, accusing the bank of improperly lowering the book value of its Tier One capital instruments via accounting actions the bank took prior to and during the 2018 sales process. Earlier, in relation to that same lawsuit, the investor group had filed a 1782 discovery request in the United States Court system asking to be allowed to serve subpoenas on the bank's new owners; Cerberus, JC Flowers and Goldentree Asset Management. The 1782 request seeks information related to the NPL portfolio sale and share sale. In their initial motion, plaintiffs stated "The inside nature of the NPL Portfolio Sale, and the decision to sell HSH and the NPL Portfolio (at a deep discount to book value) to virtually the same investor consortium, strongly suggest severe irregularities in both the Bank Sale and the NPL Portfolio Sale transactions." The Court granted the request at the end of 2018. The decision is currently under appeal. On October 4, 2019, the court lifted the stay that had been placed over the production of documents in the 1782 case. The plaintiffs are free to begin discovery even while the 1782 case is under appeal This lawsuit is in addition to earlier lawsuits filed by the insurance companies Talanx, Huk-Coburg and Baloise in May 2018 over the same issues. Those lawsuits seeks damages of over euro 285 million. In December 2019, HCOB settled with the group of bondholders that had sued it in January 2019. In September 2019, the Cum-Ex scandal returned in force for the German Banking industry