Bloomberg – Helmut Kiener went from selling advertising for telephone books and getting paid by the ad to starting a German hedge-fund firm that would eventually make bets using millions borrowed from such banks as Barclays Plc, JPMorgan Chase & Co. and BNP Paribas SA.
Police and prosecutors yesterday raided Kiener’s ivy- covered villa near Frankfurt, part of a joint German-U.S. investigation into what may be losses amounting to $400 million, people familiar with the probe said. A woman who identified herself as Kiener’s wife declined to comment when a Bloomberg News reporter rang the door bell last night. Neither Kiener nor anyone at his firm, K1 Group, has been publicly accused of wrongdoing in connection with the probe.
