Around him. Banks lend him huge amounts of money nothing was too good for him. We wanted to find out how he managed to scam billions in a complex pyramid scheme. To date month which meter lives on mediocre where he retired after he got out of prison. Smita wants to keep his family out of this recalls his exwife and 2 children live in switzerland home media grew up in the castle where his father was a businessman and he discovered at an early age that he had a talent for making money out. We met him at one of his favorite restaurants near palma. Course i was always ambitious i wanted to have a job out of for cold when i was in college i sold cars and the 1st to be w. s and then mercedes you have me say 3 or 4 that when i was 16 i sold Life Insurance after school for the 1st year i worked for a company that was owned by the father of one of my friends who lived for always wanted to have something to do but at some point. I took a wrong turn. And i either didnt notice at the time or i realized it too late. To be the man. Prosecutors say that she needed company flow text cheated banks and Leasing Companies out of more than 4000000000 monks. Kind of tough man was one of the prosecutors in snead us case documents used as evidence at his trial stored in this basement room at the Prosecutors Office in month hi im. Huffman carried out extensive interviews with smita we asked him what drove shmita to commit these crimes. 1st he didnt have a lot of friends at school. But at the age of 16 in the mid 1960 s. He got a moped. And submitted and none of the other kids had one more peter sagal and he used that moped to make friends. For him and he wanted to be popular thought you know. And i think that was a basic component of his character and respond play constantly sought the approval of others 50 einstein named. Manfred smita founded sloan tex in 1994 and became enormously successful as the next several years. Also forced in france and germany could be pretty intimidating so he was always very well dressed with a tailor made suits and a rolex on his wrist. Very impressive and examples out there in other muslim he takes everything he does to extremes. When he goes after Something Else for the chase is that like a terrier until he gets it and tell. The boy who started out with a moped had made it to the top and now owned a fleet of luxury cars. In 1009900 his 50th birthday with a gun a event at is a state or 2 im back on the outskirts of cars where. They want to town of im going bad about 300 people politicians Business Executives sports stars anybody who is anybody by the law doesnt then im a lot of people were dying to get an invitation. As it was the event of the year in the state of baton rouge my back and it went for. Me to lived a life of luxury a private jet with gold faucets. Villas all over the world any b. 30 florida europe and some. Even 3 yachts the largest was 55 meters long. From the sultan of brunei. Cuts not to his extravagance was excessive. On the one hand that sort of lifestyle makes some people envious. Of their i know on the other hand envy is the highest form of recognition night if the former and shmeat are used his position to win approval from people would. Become not to. He had all the toys that anyone could want a huge collection of beautiful cars yachts jet aircraft. And even had his own airport who else has that part of the show. We took months visit the airfield that he used to its now the culls who bought him bought an international airport. For this report shmita agreed to visit some of the places that played an Important Role in his life as he made his way to the tunnel. He used to come here often at one time he had 2 private planes and a helicopter parked here. He built his Business Empire on a Technology Concept that he discovered in the late 1980 s. A u. S. Company called flow mole developed a horizontal drilling system so that utility lines could be laid without causing a lot of environmental damage. Adept at this idea and convinced banks and Leasing Companies to invest in it. No one done before in this instance we were convinced that this was a great system and the banks thought so it was well done for the us to they gave us 20000000 to develop the equipment we neednt young on the some of the narcan market smita promoted his concept with expensive advents that were broadcast on prime time german t. V. Just making a gas line to him under the nose were doing it underground would put it underground without taking out you know if its a new system. But the commercials were deceptive in fact the drilling machines didnt. Rocks and existing lines got in the way. He does business never really got off the ground but he managed to convince investors that his company was turning a profit. We actually started out piecemeal. Its not like my partner and i actually planned to rip people off. And we believed in this concept. We wanted it to be a success so we manufactured statistics that appeared to make it a success we were counting on future sales and thats how we came up with this system and the thesis is the can stand the banks were delighted to help finance this project thats on the field evolved because. At the height of the scandal media had convinced investors that his company had more than 3000 drilling machines but in reality they were just under 300. To keep that in keeping the scheme going was street is still going as a salesman. Im sure. He can be very charming. If youve known him a long time like i have thats theyre less impressed by him. But most people were taken in by a charm to put it bluntly. My guns so. Sweet it hasnt flown over his former Company Headquarters in the early 2 decades. Today were taking the same routes that he did back then. We were right over it. It would have been a short trip by car thats me there prefer to take the chopper. Look its faster and no traffic jams either. I think. He often took investors along the helicopter was on call 24 hours a day but we were right over it. Has to go but were going to learn. More right there where those containers are. No worked in a look seriously appointed office hes come a long way from selling used cars for a living. This is where he built the Business Empire that turned out to be little more than a house of cards. And it came crashing down on february 4th 2000. Police arrested months which meta at his office. For most of his employees this development came as a complete surprise. It was on a friday afternoon when most of the workers were getting ready to go home. Style farm criminal pulling so it was the police and some tax investigators i could hardly believe it im against on those but i was shocked on its windisch and then i thought thats that they wouldnt be here if they didnt have a good reason to. Police and officials from the Prosecutors Office carried out boxes full of evidence this was shaping up to be the biggest case of financial fraud in postwar german history. 2 decades later this is all that remains of the flow tech sign on top of this building. The company that had been the darling of bankers and politicians went out of business in late 1999. This is the 1st time that shmita has been back here since flow techs collapsed. The one thing corporate its a very strange feeling to be here after 18 years and 2 weeks of the river here to come. On how the swine kopf i can still see the place in my mind but now that im actually here its difficult for me to look back at everything that happened with a list them out of a group of field for the rest. Of the story of that was the hardest day of my life and. He hasnt been back here since the day he was arrested. Well the service was mrs lobs office my secretary. Its almost hard to believe that this is the place wish me to all of his deals. This is really difficult. Desk. Over here right there. A lot of feel like im in a movie right now and. Then for this im glad that i came back here though so that i can somehow get close this chapter of my life. But its not easy and the thought. Id like to leave now. The flow tax system worked for 5 years smita kept selling machines even though most of them existent only on paper. He created an elaborate business for a song to fool his investments. We took a creative approach when the Bank Auditors wanted to see some drilling machines and wed switch the identification plates. And show them as much equipment as they wanted the molds with the machine in the holocaust and the deep cuts in baltimore. They kept some of the machines in this warehouse officials from the banks and Leasing Companies had a look around and was satisfied. Zynga common how much they came in and broke down the id numbers of and check them against the list they had at the office just medium and they all matched up early so they also looked at the id plates with see and they checked out as well so. Im to duplicate now and before that is basically how we did it on. This i was going to get out and for. Everything seemed fine before talked to mention at the end of the day he was probably pleased to see how easy it was to deceive people that need advice to have. It all seemed so easy almost a sure thing smita kept playing his shell game with the drilling equipment on the banks kept lending him money after all he had to make the monthly lease payments even if the machines existed only on paper. The flying glass is steamed it was a classic pyramid scheme and it worked at 1st because he used the new loans to pay off old creditors. But then things got out of hand and it became more and more difficult to control it severe to howden on its violent ended and it got to the point where he had to come up with 60000000 marks a month just to make the leasing payments using. No more not least begins again. Thats me to manage to convince the banks to keep giving him money the bank. The banks made big profits with his flow text fields and guns and all my warm year to many good food he and the camp and a bank. Roaches were competing with each other to get his business. To storm all the scheme would never have worked of the banks hadnt played along absolutely not guns that theres no way. That this was. Sweeter deliberately kept his meetings with Bank Executives short he preferred to spend his time flying them around in his helicopter and treating them to sumptuous meals. Through coffee. Fly out to the airfield near serling and and then celebrate with a big lunch. There called the liquid lunches for me doc is nice that everyone drank a lot of alcohol and. Maybe he was trying to get his guests to be a little less cautious hardly the guns. And. Sometimes theyd fly to the nearby alsace region to sample the excellent local wines or hed invite bank is and Business Partners to his yacht or one of his business. I created a situation where i can demonstrate my success to the outside world that was very important for me but a few months i didnt write people out to the yard to them take them to dinner so i had the thought and these displays of success became part of the Business Model and weeks i had to do it that to get this game going. Well this done to me think more cup would get into. A 996 smita himself an airfield a former Canadian Military facility near baton bad. The powerful state politician helped him to arrange the deal the honorary chairman of the didnt back Free Democratic policy. Recommended with the German Government should sell the airfield and at a reasonable price to about 38000000. 00 marks. The. When he also arranged for us to get a government subsidy provided that we got a final approval and started flight operations. In the on that was a great deal for us so we went ahead with it. Deliberately made a point of according to all the titians who could help him grow his Business People who could open doors for him. Tops or and a more low volume included youre going more locked into a respected politician who knew everyone would come to on time its. Through more like he met a lot of important people and so it was a smart move for him to make some dominating type. Of talk. Show me to also started building a new flow techs headquarters complex at the airfield leading politicians attended the groundbreaking ceremony including the state premier at the time having to fly for. All. The guests were impressed with his model of the proposed new facility. Mido made a promotional video. For hero from here will tackle the projects of the 3rd more money im. Saying that this new facility would bring prosperity to the region. State premier teufel at the controls of an excavator at a ceremony to mark the start of construction. But for this report none of the politicians who worked with me to wanted to talk to us about him. After all its a very old story. So this medium it media enjoyed being around politicians and they enjoyed being around him. It was like they acknowledged each others importance can. You show me. Leader bill is a former band of it and back interior minister who later chaired a state Parliament Committee that investigated the flow text scandal. At this point questions were already being raised about the companys finances but prosecutors and the tax authorities didnt. Investigates perhaps because of all the powerful politicians who willing to shmita. He knew a lot of people in the State Government including the premier mr bush and so he must be an important guy if he wasnt the sons would have had nothing to do with. That influence the decisions made by your forages its not like they said im not going anywhere near that case but they did see that they had to be careful because of shmita status of our small Means Committee for cities. In july 999 metre through a huge party to celebrate his 50th birthday heres a picture of the official invitation and the guest list. 300. 00 people were invited it was an event that no one wanted to miss. Among the guests was former bart inverse of that state premier 8 who gave the opening speech. The festivities took place at smead as to on that estate. He and his family lived there until isa arrest in february 2000 and. By christopher my biggest mistake was that i used my Financial Resources to create an image of success for me to provide not only for the outside world but also for me personally i wanted people to envy me. And when people are jealous of you and you crash and burn they all cheer for him to here. We are on the way to month meet us former estates at 2 in back near. The prophecy covers 60000 square meters. Back then he believed that he deserved to live in a place like this. When i look back at those times i cant believe that i didnt realize how serious things had become. The whole thing kept getting bigger and bigger and i just went along with it. Does says that he was caught up in a spiral of events that he could not escape. It was he who feel you only have one goal and you will do whatever it takes to achieve it you lose your sense of right and wrong and you do some things that are wrong and are called not merely questionable. If you do things that are illegal but you dont care anymore and if you look at the thought. Behind these walls a month taint his guests and impress them with his wealth but many of his friends from back then long gone. They came to my parties and had a lot of fun for me but when the whole thing collapsed they disappeared on the. And go when he lost everything including the yachts those people didnt want to have anything to do with him. We wouldnt call them friends that would have one of those one so long argument knocked out hot when youre region powerful people like to be around you. But if you get into trouble no one wants to know you. Its a tool. To drop down a little back would be great. Its hard to believe that meant for me to manage to get away with this scheme for so long but the bigger it costs the more people believed him. Not to really define what it was all based on power and influence and money and. It was like he was too big to fail and maybe some people thought he was but no one seemed to doubt that the company was profitable than thanks to cook and its most money of all most money he said to himself as i have to show my family in the state of baton britain back that i can be successful as a scholar. And thats just what he tried to do in order to settle in the town. For a time month french media was able to convince people that he was a model entrepreneur. He attracted politicians who thought that he could be useful to them and bankers who thought that hed make them a lot of money. Today he regrets what he did. In the dish a distance into effect bank and give his the primary victims where the banks not any private Individuals Bank and just the bank happened to squeeze out i do have a guilty conscience and with these for us what we did was wrong consider walking from or im low quite high and then crash and its all my fault which is a lie and mine if i cant blame anyone else will give me. But most of all of the cost and im sorry about how this affected my family because i made them feel miserable to sub interest is. Thinking. Africa. Cards lawyer. Car culture. Car hair. Superman. Superfood stylish style icon to lead a horse. Lifestyle youre a. Hero. 30 minutes. Now im dark. And close to artists my family has some under threat. The crisis is also a catalyst creativity. New directions will be ard state in response to lock downs and fears. Horns 20 more and. 90 minutes on t. W. I was history when i arrived here i slept with single people in a room. It was hard to shred. I even got white hair. That hit my language head not a lot this hits me a little but which maybe to entrust the lives of like you want to know their story my parents were fighting and reliable information for margaret. Each step. My story. Of the people who planned to meet built dedicated lives to me. I am not too dumb to. Understand the mind made. In the centuries they built me they created something truly rather. The too much as i was destroying it. I have mocked to my cities days for centuries the company of my country turns to hours until the day i mean leave. Not the time to leave this dance i feel a. Bit. Odd. Place. Blame. This is d. W. News live from berlin yet another terrible record in italy as the Coronavirus Claims hundreds more lives exactly a month after at 1st death the virus kills nearly 800. 00 people in just 24 hours as its the deadliest day at that of the worlds worst hit country also coming out fears of a 2nd wave of corona virus in hong kong as new cases emerge well talk to a dog