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The K1 fund was a British Virgin Islands based hedge fund, initially marketed to and invested in by mainly German-based private investors, and latterly a series of global banks. With an estimated size of $378million/£249million and $1Bn under management, it collapsed in 2008. It is estimated by administrators Grant Thornton that liquidated funds able to be returned to investors are zero. It is suspected by German regulators BaFin to be a ponzi scheme.〔 ==History== After Dieter Frerichs relocated back to Germany from Spain in the early 1990s, he contacted his friend, qualified psychologist Helmut Kiener, to establish a financial partnership. Together they persuaded 10,000 small investors and banks to invest in an investment fund, founded in 1996 via the Kiener Company as the K1 fund. As neither Kiener nor Frerichs held suitable licenses to run the fund, they appointed ex-banker Michael Smolek to run the fund under the United Kingdom-registered private limited company ''Nitro Ltd'' from London. The business prospered, and by 1999 Kiener claimed to have made 13million Deutsche Marks for 100 investors. However, in 2001, after the German federal financial authority BaFin prohibited further investment in the fund,〔 the company split into two shell companies named K1 and K1 Global Investments, based in the British Virgin Islands. However, actual control was via Frerichs office in Mallorca, Spain, marketed to German customers via a telephone line sited in a friends flat in Munich. Although further warnings and prosecutions were issued by BaFin with regards the two K1 funds (K1 Global and K1 Invest, a hedge fund), investigations have shown that since 2006 K1 had subscribed a further 300million Euro's of investment from both private German investors, as well as banks including Bear Stearns (acquired by JP Morgan), BNP Paribas, Barclays and Hypo Group Alpe Adria.〔 K1 claimed a return on its investments of 825% from 1996 to 2008.〔 抄文引用元・出典: フリー百科事典『 ウィキペディア（Wikipedia）』 ■ウィキペディアで「K1 fund」の詳細全文を読む スポンサード リンク
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