A Taiwan prosecutor has issued an arrest warrant for a Deutsche Bank executive embroiled in a dispute between the German bank and a prominent Taiwanese scientist over $48 million in investment losses, Reuters reports.

Deutsche and Chang Tse Wen, the inventor of the asthma drug Xolair, sued each other in Singapore's High Court in 2009 over the investment losses incurred by the scientist, starting in late 2007. Chang has also lodged a complaint against Deutsche relationship manager Johnny Wan Fan Ting in Taipei, the report said.

"We have issued an arrest warrant against Wan Fan Ting because Chang Tse Wen filed the case against Wan and Wan never answered requests to court hearings, and prosecutors don't know where he is," a spokesperson for the Taipei District Court Prosecutor's Office was quoted as saying yesterday.

The case is being heard in Singapore because the city-state is the "booking centre" for Chang's transactions with the bank.

Chang is based in Taiwan, while Wan works out of Hong Kong.

Deutsche Bank reportedly said that Wan was not aware an arrest warrant had been issued against him. The Frankfurt-listed banking giant had sued Chang for $1.8 million to cover investment losses that he allegedly incurred. The scientist has in turn alleged misrepresentation by the bank, which led to his loss of over $48 million.

Court papers say Chang had purchased financial products called "accumulators" in late 2007 to bet on price movements in the shares of Citigroup, UBS, Societe Generale and Washington Mutual. These products require investors to buy shares at a fixed price, usually at a discount to prevailing market rates, at regular periods.