Swiss court convicts German financier Homm in long-running fraud case
Michael Shields, 23 April 2021
German financier Florian Homm was convicted by a Swiss court on Friday of breach of trust and multiple forgery of documents in a fraud case that had led to millions of dollars in losses for investors. The 61-year-old former hedge fund manager was convicted in absentia and sentenced to 36 months in jail, of which half was suspended, the court said.
Authorities had accused Homm of orchestrating a market manipulation scheme to artificially improve the performance of his funds, a fraud that led to at least $170 million in losses for investors.
Homm disappeared in 2007 from his luxury villa on the Spanish island of Majorca after, according to U.S. authorities, dumping tens of millions of dollars’ worth of his own shares in his company Absolute Capital Management Holdings Ltd and causing huge losses to investors.
He was caught in Italy in 2013 after Italian police, acting on an FBI tip, followed Homm’s former wife and son to the Uffizi museum in Florence, where they met up with him. He is now believed to be living in Germany.
