Former Sal. Oppenheim senior bankers found guilty of fraud
FRANKFURT (Reuters) - A former Sal. Oppenheim senior banker was jailed for nearly three years on Thursday, with three of his ex-colleagues handed suspended sentences, for fraud before the demise of the wealth manager that specialised in serving Germany's wealthy elite.
After a high-profile three-year trial the quartet were found guilty for the part they played in causing 100 million euros (71.71 million pounds) in damages tied to risky investments in German retail group Arcandor, which later went bankrupt, and property transactions in Germany's financial capital Frankfurt.
Sal. Oppenheim, founded in 1789, ran into trouble during the financial crisis and was eventually bought by Deutsche Bank for 1 billion euros in 2010. The fraud trial related to events before Deutsche Bank's takeover.
A Cologne regional court sentenced 71-year-old Friedrich Carl Janssen, partner and former risk manager at Sal. Oppenheim, to a jail term of two years and 10 months after Thursday's verdict.
Three other senior managers -- former CEO Matthias Graf von Krockow, former head of investment banking Dieter Pfundt and Christopher von Oppenheim -- received suspended sentences of up to two years.
The trial was one of a string of white-collar crime cases that have attracted widespread media attention in Germany. In November Thomas Middelhoff, once one of Germany's most prominent and respected business leaders, was sentenced to three years in prison after being convicted of embezzlement and tax evasion.
(Reporting by Tom Kaeckenhoff and Anneli Palmen; Writing by Thomas Atkins; Editing by David Goodman)
