Josef Ackermann, chief executive of Deutsche Bank, will not be allowed to pay a hefty fine in order to escape a second trial in the Mannesmann bonus scandal, German prosecutors said last night.

Peter Lichtenberg, a spokesman for prosecutors in Düsseldorf, dismissed a report in the German press claiming Ackermann and the five other executives involved in the €57m ($68.5m) bonus case would be given large fines and thus avoid a second trial.