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No new clues on kidnapped banker’s wife

The Heidenheim family of kidnapped banker’s wife Maria Bögerl appeared on German television Wednesday night in an appeal for clues to her disappearance. But police said they still have no solid leads on her whereabouts.

Published: 20 May 2010 09:00 CEST

No new clues on kidnapped banker's wife

Photo: DPA

The 54-year-old was abducted on the morning of May 12. Her kidnappers reportedly demanded a ransom of several hundred thousand euros from her husband, Sparkasse banking chief in the Heidenheim region of Baden-Württemberg.

The huge police manhunt has been searching for the mother of two, but so far the authorities have found only her abandoned Mercedes A-Class car.

Following her family’s emotional appeal on Wednesday evening on the unsolved crime show Aktenzeichen XY…ungelöst, about 100 calls came in, Heidenheim police spokesman Uli Stöckle told broadcaster ZDF on Thursday morning.

Most of the calls have centred on the location where her car was found and the location of the ransom exchange, he said.

Stöckle spoke of an “extremely difficult” investigation, explaining that the kidnappers have broken off contact, making their demands unclear and putting the health of the victim in question.

According to daily Bild last week, Mr. Bögerl spoke with his wife by phone shortly after her abduction and she told him the kidnapper or kidnappers were threatening to kill her.

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German police swoop on gang of foreign dating scammers

The Black Axe gang was involved internationally in “multiple areas of criminal activity”, with a focus in Germany on romance scams and money-laundering, Bavarian police said in a statement.

The dating trick was a “modern form of marriage fraud”, police said.

“Using false identities, the fraudsters for example signalled their intention to marry and in the course of further contact repeatedly demand money under various pretexts,” police said.

The money was subsequently transferred to Black Axe in Nigeria “via financial agents”, authorities said.

In the process, the gang used a “commodity-based money laundering” scheme where products, often with a seeming “charitable purpose” were bought and delivered to Nigeria.

Some 450 cases of romance scamming had been reported in the region of Bavaria in 2023 alone, with the damages rising to 5.3 million euros ($5.7 million), police said.

The suspects, who all held Nigerian citizenship and were aged between 29 and 53, were arrested in nationwide raids on Tuesday.

Law enforcement swooped on 19 properties, including both homes and asylum shelters, police said.

The Black Axe gang had “strict hierarchical structures under leadership in Nigeria” operating different territorial units, police said.

The group had a “significant influence” on politics and public administrations, in particular in Nigeria.

Globally, the gang’s main areas of operation were “human-trafficking, fraud, money-laundering, prostitution and drug-trafficking”.

Black Axe operated under the cover of the Neo Black Movement of Africa, an ostensibly charitable organisation used as “camouflage” for the gang’s structures.

The action against Black Axe was the first of its kind in Germany, police said.

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