BERLIN (YBH) – Initially claiming they were taking 57-year-old financial adviser James Amburn on a holiday trip to Bavaria, 4 disgruntled investors and the adviser’s former employee kidnapped him and held him for ransom.
German Kidnappers Sentenced
After four days, the victim managed to send a coded plea for help on a fax the captors demanded he send to his Swiss bank. The plot was concocted after the investors lost their civil suit aimed at recovering their cash, estimated at 2 million euros among the 5 of them.
For 6 years, their investments had generated 12 per cent returns on Florida land deals, but the crash of the real estate market ended that compensation and Amburn disclosed he could not refund their principle.
A German court sentenced the group’s leader, 74-year-old Roland K., to six years in jail and his wife Sieglinde, 79, to a suspended 18-month sentence. One ailing defendant was not tried, and another received a suspended sentence of 21 months. The ex-employee received a four year sentence.
According to the Associated Press, Judge Karl Niedermeier said the group had taken justice into their own hands “spectacularly,” and called the crime insidious and deceitful.
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Laura spent years as a Hollywood story analyst, did a big 180, and is now an entrepreneur focused on web marketing and analytics. She's also a mom of one.Laura Glendinning article archive.
