A retired architect and four accomplices took their financial adviser hostage and held him in a purpose-built prison in Bavaria after their stock market investments failed, a court has heard.
The 74-year-old architect, identified only as Roland K, told a court in Traunstein, southern Germany, that he and his accomplices thought their financial adviser had “cheated and taken the piss” out of them after their investments in the US property market evaporated. As a result, he told the court, they had “decided to invite him for a few days’ holiday in Upper Bavaria.”
Roland K denied kidnapping, but admitted the group — including his seventh wife, 79-year-old Sieglinde; Willi D, 60; and Iris F, 64, a retired doctor — abducted James Amburn at his home in Speyer, southern Germany, in June before transporting him in the boot of a car to Roland K’s house at the lakeside resort of Chiemsee, where he had built a prison for him in the cellar.
Four of the gang are on trial for the abduction and imprisonment of US-born, 56-year-old Amburn. The trial of Gerhard F, a 67-year old retired doctor who is the husband of Iris F, has been postponed because of his poor health.
Prosecutors said the group hoped to force Amburn to repay their lost 2.5 million euros (US$3.4 million). He was freed by an armed police unit after four days when he managed to send a coded message to his Swiss bank requesting help.
According to the charge sheet, the group tied Amburn up in a purpose-built container, in which they transported him to the boot of Roland K’s car. When the car stopped at the house and Amburn tried to flee, he was allegedly beaten. The group then allegedly brought him to the garage for questioning, during which they served him coffee and cake and forced him to sign documents in which he promised to pay back the lost investments.
Roland K on Monday told the court how he weighed up how to retrieve his lost money from Amburn and decided to take the matter into his own hands. He said the aim of the dungeon, which he referred to as an “emergency guestroom,” had been to get Amburn “to pull out his checkbook.”
The accused face a minimum of five years in jail if they are found guilty.
Archeologists in Peru on Thursday said they found the 5,000-year-old remains of a noblewoman at the sacred city of Caral, revealing the important role played by women in the oldest center of civilization in the Americas. “What has been discovered corresponds to a woman who apparently had elevated status, an elite woman,” archeologist David Palomino said. The mummy was found in Aspero, a sacred site within the city of Caral that was a garbage dump for more than 30 years until becoming an archeological site in the 1990s. Palomino said the carefully preserved remains, dating to 3,000BC, contained skin, part of the
‘WATER WARFARE’: A Pakistani official called India’s suspension of a 65-year-old treaty on the sharing of waters from the Indus River ‘a cowardly, illegal move’ Pakistan yesterday canceled visas for Indian nationals, closed its airspace for all Indian-owned or operated airlines, and suspended all trade with India, including to and from any third country. The retaliatory measures follow India’s decision to suspend visas for Pakistani nationals in the aftermath of a deadly attack by shooters in Kashmir that killed 26 people, mostly tourists. The rare attack on civilians shocked and outraged India and prompted calls for action against their country’s archenemy, Pakistan. New Delhi did not publicly produce evidence connecting the attack to its neighbor, but said it had “cross-border” links to Pakistan. Pakistan denied any connection to
TRUMP EFFECT: The win capped one of the most dramatic turnarounds in Canadian political history after the Conservatives had led the Liberals by more than 20 points Canadian Prime Minister Mark Carney yesterday pledged to win US President Donald Trump’s trade war after winning Canada’s election and leading his Liberal Party to another term in power. Following a campaign dominated by Trump’s tariffs and annexation threats, Carney promised to chart “a new path forward” in a world “fundamentally changed” by a US that is newly hostile to free trade. “We are over the shock of the American betrayal, but we should never forget the lessons,” said Carney, who led the central banks of Canada and the UK before entering politics earlier this year. “We will win this trade war and
Armed with 4,000 eggs and a truckload of sugar and cream, French pastry chefs on Wednesday completed a 121.8m-long strawberry cake that they have claimed is the world’s longest ever made. Youssef El Gatou brought together 20 chefs to make the 1.2 tonne masterpiece that took a week to complete and was set out on tables in an ice rink in the Paris suburb town of Argenteuil for residents to inspect. The effort overtook a 100.48m-long strawberry cake made in the Italian town of San Mauro Torinese in 2019. El Gatou’s cake also used 350kg of strawberries, 150kg of sugar and 415kg of