Suspect Tied To K1 Fund Manager Kills Self, Prosecutors Say -FT

5th Jul 2010 17:37

DOW JONES NEWSWIRES A man arrested in connection with a probe into an alleged EUR300 million Ponzi scheme involving Germany's K1 hedge-fund group committed suicide, the Financial Times reports Monday, citing state prosecutors in the southern German city of Wuerzburg. A spokesman for the prosecutors said Dieter Frerichs, managing director of K1 funds K1 Global and K1 Invest, shot himself Saturday as Spanish police tried to detain him after a Madrid court ordered his extradition. Frerichs had been arrested in Spain mid-April and released conditionally as part of a German investigation of K1's founder Helmut Kiener, who has been detained without bail since late 2010. Prosecutors say Kiener and several associates defrauded small-time investors and Barclays PLC (BCS), BNP Paribas SA (BNP.FR) and JPMorgan Chase & Co. (JPM) of more than EUR300 million by diverting funds to their own accounts through a network of entities. Full story at http://www.ft.com/cms/s/0/558f253a-8834-11df-a4e7-00144feabdc0.html -Dow Jones Newswires; 212-416-2900 (END) Dow Jones Newswires July 05, 2010 12:37 ET (16:37 GMT)