Reinhard Grundmann and Tracy Cooper

Lawyers are continuing to review files involving these two individuals in connection with litigation in California, Austria and Rome. If you have any information, please contact world law direct at info@worldlawdirect.com.

The world law lawyers will help direct you further.

The 1st Division of the Federal Supreme Court (Germany) has decided on 4 April 2008:

The defendant's appeal against the sentence of the District Court of Munich I dated 25 October 2007 is dismissed as unfounded since the re-examination of the sentence based on the appeal justification did not reveal any error of law to the detriment of the defendant (§ 349 para. 2 StPO).

The appellant must bear the costs of the appellate.




_____



...on 25/10/2007, issued the following


VERDICT:

1.-
The defendant Grundmann is guilty of fraud in 2 cases in joinder of offenses with one case of attempted fraud.


2.-
The defendant Becker is guilty of fraud in 4 cases.


3.-
The defendants are therefore convicted as follows:

a.- the defendant Grundmann to a total penalty of 5 years and 6 months,
b.- the defendant Becker to a total penalty of 2 years.


4.-
The sentence of the prison term imposed on the defendant Becker is suspended.


5.-
The extradition custody which the defendant Grundmann has suffered in Greece in this matter is credited to him at a ratio of 1 : 1.5, that is, 1 day of extradition custody corresponds to one and a half days of penal custody.



6.-
The defendants bear the costs of the proceedings and their reasonable expenses.

Regulations applied:
- for Grundmann: § 263 para. 1, para. 2, para. 3 no. 1 and no. 2, 22, 23, 25 para. 2, 53 StGB
- for Becker: § 263 para. 1, para. 3 no. 1 and no. 2, 25 para. 2, 53, 56 StGB





Reasons:

A.) Personal circumstances

I.) Grundmann

The defendant Grundmann grew up as the oldest child of a professional soldier and a housewife in the parental household, together with two brothers and one sister. The defendant passed through primary school and attended secondary school for seven years. He completed secondary school with an O-level and then attended commercial school. Afterwards he received an education as a tax assistant. After completing his military service in the Bundeswehr, the defendant studied four semesters of business administration in Kiel and achieved the level of a certified business economist. He discontinued his subsequent study of Economics and moved to Saudi Arabia where he was employed at a local trading company.

Later on, he transferred to Nigeria where he worked for a variety of companies successively. In connection with obtaining these employment contracts and in connection with his activity in Nigeria, the defendant committed breach of trust in coincidence with fraud and forgery, as well as forgery in three cases, one of them in coincidence with abuse of title, for which he was sentenced on 25/2/1983 to a total penalty of 6 years and 9 months by the District Court of Würzburg (BZR no. 2). A "key part" of the deeds that were passed judgment on at the time was that the defendant had raked in considerable amounts of money by means of a cheque manipulated by him, and had thereby caused damages of far more than one million DM converted.

Before that, the defendant had to be sentenced as early as 15/10/1979 by the County Court of Kiel due to continuing joint fraud in coincidence with forgery, to wit to a prison term of 6 months which was suspended (BZR no. 1). The underlying reason was that the defendant, together with an accessory, falsified return receipts for empties in such a manner that he was able to cash a tenfold higher amount for returned empty beverages containers.

Most recently, the County Court of Frankfurt/Main had sentenced him on 19/7/2002 to a prison term of 2 years for fraud, a sentence that was suspended after "the defendant had already served a considerable part of it due to the extradition custody and detention pending trial". The underlying reason was that the defendant, operating from Norway, had damaged an Austrian citizen by 350,000.00 US Dollar, together with two accessories residing in Munich, and had pocketed 322,500.00 DM of this for himself. The defendant and his accessories had pretended, against their better judgement, that they would in turn ensure that a leading global bank would provide 110 million $ with which a bank guarantee, that is a so-called "stand-by letter of credit" of the same nominal amount was to be bought for 83.5 % of the same; several days later this would then be sold for 88 % of the same nominal amount, and the aggrieved party would then receive a share of the profit of 5.5 million $. Meanwhile, the defendant was clear in his mind that this transaction had no real background because there is no such thing as trading with bank guarantees. The defendant's and his accessories' plan was - so the said verdict - solely the fraudulent raising of funds which one wanted to use for one's own purposes only, without reciprocating in any way. The 2 year prison term was remitted effective 22/8/2005.


The defendant Grundmann is currently in his fourth marriage. The first marriage lasted from 1970 to 1975 and did not produce any children. The second one lasted from 1975 to 1978 and resulted in a currently 26-year-old daughter who studies law in Germany. From his third marriage (1987-1991) he has another daughter of currently 17 years who attends a secondary school in Norway. From the current marriage which he entered into in 1999, the defendant has a three-year-old daughter. All daughters live with their mothers, and the defendant maintains passable contact with them all.

The defendant is physically healthy. He speaks Greek and English, Italian, Norwegian and Arabic.

The defendant Grundmann is currently in the penal institution in Munich-Stadelheim in detention pending trial based on the arrest warrant by the County Court in Munich of 24/2/2006 (in the formulation of the resolution of 19/12/2006). The detention pending trial started on 18/12/2006. Before that, the defendant Grundmann had stayed in extradition custody in Athens since 6/12/2006. Before that, the defendant Grundmann had already been arrested on 21/1/2005 in Athens to secure the extradition applied for in this matter, but had been released again on 24/2/2005. The detention conditions in Greece differed from the domestic detention awaiting trial in that the defendant was housed in a prison cell together with 15 other inmates and the quality of boarding lagged behind German standards.

From legal relationships that have nothing to do with the charges brought here, the defendant has at least 1,702.04 € in debt, namely with the federal exchequer for a Bafög loan which the defendant should pay by quarterly instalments. However, the defendant is unable to do so since he is - at least for the time being - insolvent.

I too am looking for information about these two since Tracy Cooper may be involved in possible fraud in the United States. Please post any information you may have regarding possible illegal activity in Austria, Italy, Austria, Greece or United States.

This Cooper woman had access to assets from various business dealings that German courts deemed/ruled fraudulent. Her assets could be seized we were told.

I would suggest you contact the World Law Direct people and they can direct you to the lawyers involved.

Also see the court information above.

Is there any updated information about the case against Reinhard and Tracy? Is Reinhard still in prison? It's not clear. Also, is there any convictions for Tracy Cooper? Is she a suspect in any fraud cases? Other than this website, where can I get current information regarding these two people.