Gold bars, here welded in plastic, are a popular form of capital investment Photo: picture alliance / Wagner
From BZ/dpa
A process of investment fraud involving gold transactions in more than 140 cases has begun before a Berlin court.
The two defendants, aged 48 and 45, are said to have acted as managing directors and sales managers of a company and caused damage of 1.86 million euros.
The hearing before the Berlin-Tiergarten district court was interrupted on Thursday after the indictment had been read out for a legal discussion between the parties involved in the process. It was initially unclear whether an agreement would be reached.
In the alleged acts in 2014, investors were deceived into believing that the amounts provided would be used to make safe and lucrative gold investments on their behalf, according to the indictment. “In truth, however, the defendants wanted to use the amounts in particular for running costs of their business operations, including their own salaries, travel expenses and to pay high commissions to a large number of sales employees.”
It was suggested to those affected that their assets were protected. In fact, the gold deals announced to investors did not take place.
The charges are fraud and illegal banking. The then managing director is also accused of delaying insolvency and violating the accounting obligation. The trial is scheduled to continue on November 7th.