Wendelin Wiedeking and Holger Härter: acquittal for Porsche gamers – SPIEGEL ONLINE

Something like one hears as a defendant: As the presiding judge Frank Maurer on Friday announced the acquittals for Wendelin Wiedeking and Holger Härter, he combined this with a good scolding for his accuser: “On the allegations of the Stuttgart prosecutor’s nothing in it nothing – neither forward nor back, even in the middle of “

It sounded almost as if the former top managers had landed without reason in court..

In fact, Wiedeking and Härter are the main characters of one of the largest economic thrillers of recent times: Porsche wanted to take over the larger by a multiple VW Group. Here, the two gambled, however such that instead Porsche was swallowed by VW at the end (a detailed chronology of the SPIEGEL page).

Porsche had its stake in VW gradually increased. With a share of 75 percent of the ordinary shares of the much smaller sports car maker could dominate the Wolfsburg-based group. was almost achieved only when that mark in October 2008, Porsche made the takeover plans publicly – previously they had been publicly always denied.

Many investors saw this approach as a manipulation. They had bet on falling prices and lost a lot of money when the stock after announcing the takeover plans from 200 to over 1000 Euro shot. Among the victims was also the entrepreneur Adolf Merckle. He lost more than 200 million euros and early 2009 took his own life.

As Porsche is verhob at Volkswagen

The defendants argued, however, the proposed acquisition was in October from Supervisory been approved. The is now followed the court. “There was no secret plan of the Board,” said Maurer. This not only prison sentences of more than two years have done, which had called for the prosecution of Wiedeking and Härter. The holding company Porsche SE , which is now the major shareholder of VW, also comes around to a fine of about 800 million euros.

Megalomaniac was the plan of Wiedeking and Härter yet. That they thereby at least temporarily moved beyond legally permissible, is the fact that hardener was sentenced in 2013 for credit fraud to a fine of 630,000 euros. The CFO had concealed convinced the judge in loan negotiations with the bank BNP Paribas that Porsche had 45 million put options for Porsche.

Such options were part of the high-risk model, the Porsche wanted to lift the takeover. It guarantees Porsche against rising VW courses, saw conversely compensation to the banks, if the rates should fall.

The bust that nobody saw coming

This actually happened after the Lehman bankruptcy surprisingly shook the global financial markets in the US. The Frankfurter Maple Bank – which has recently gone bankrupt because of crooked Cum Ex Deals – sent Porsche due to falling rates demands which partially increased by hundreds of millions every hour. Nevertheless, Porsche had to continue to buy shares in order to support the exchange rate.

This model brought the sports car manufacturer within a few months on the brink of insolvency, before then calculated VW saved him with a loan.

So what is the lesson from the failed Zockerei? For example, the realization that too much cash business leaders can quickly bring any ideas: At the beginning of the maneuver of Wiedeking and Härter were three billion euros, which is not simply wanted to distribute to its shareholders one.

Currently, the European Central Bank flooded with its zero interest rate policy again the markets with liquidity. According to figures from the Bundesbank, German companies have increased their cash reserves alone in autumn 2015 by more than ten percent to 1.5 trillion euros. This is the strongest growth since 2008 – as the Porsche crime reached its peak

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