Florian Homm

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Florian Wilhelm Jürgen Homm (born October 7, 1959 in Oberursel ) is a German stock market speculator and hedge fund manager .

The hedge fund Absolute Capital Management (ACM) managed by Homm came to a volume of up to three billion US dollars at times, but collapsed in 2007. Investors are said to have lost $ 200 million. Homm went into hiding, so the FBI , SEC and DEA put him up for a search. In 2013, Homm was arrested by the police in Florence after information from agents from the FBI. After the maximum length of pre-trial detention, he was released in 2014.

Today Homm lives in Germany, from where he will not be extradited, irrespective of the arrest warrant issued by the USA and Switzerland; because, like many other countries, Germany basically only delivers its own citizens to other EU countries ( Art. 16 (2) GG). Money and gold transactions in the millions with the Swiss bank Reichmuth and UBS , which Homm is said to have carried out under the pseudonym Colin Trainor with a forged passport, remain unresolved .

Life

Florian Homm grew up as the son of the medium-sized craft entrepreneur Joachim Homm and his wife Maria-Barbara Homm in Bad Homburg vor der Höhe, Hesse . His maternal great-uncle was the entrepreneur Josef Neckermann . After studying at Harvard University , which he completed with a Master of Business Administration from Harvard Business School , Homm began his work in the US financial sector at the investment bank Merrill Lynch , after which he worked for the US fund provider Fidelity Investments , the Swiss private bank Julius Baer and the US asset manager Tweedy Browne .

In 1993, he made his own and founded the American Kevin Devine, which specializes in small business investment company Value Management & Research AG (VMR), with whom he later a series of unsuccessful companies - such Toysinternational.com or ComTelco  - at Internet exchanges such as the Frankfurt New Market . The first allegations made the rounds that Homm was influencing prices through public statements and analyzes of companies in order to then benefit from this with his company as an investor. From today's perspective, Homm compares his work as “active euthanasia”, which included profiting from the downfall of corporations.

The following stock market boom made him rich. After the planned merger with little later insolvent company Knorr Capital failed, leaving Homm VMR. VMR had a market value of 500 million euros in 2000, which collapsed two years later with the dot-com bubble . In 2000, at the height of his bladder, doctors attested that the then 40-year-old had multiple sclerosis , a disease from which his sister died in 2005.

At the beginning of the new millennium, he and others founded the hedge fund Absolute Capital Management Holdings Ltd. in Los Angeles . (ACM) based on the British offshore - tax haven Cayman Islands , which he in the unregulated 2006 Alternative Investment Market of the segment London Stock Exchange led. In his most successful phase, he managed three billion euros in client assets with ACM, making it one of the 300 richest Germans. His private fortune was estimated at 400 million euros. He was named Hedge Fund Leader of The Year by Alternative Investment News .

Homm then caused a stir with his request to split up Freenet . Together with ACM, he participated in the TUI travel group and the Borussia Dortmund soccer club . At Borussia Dortmund in particular, he ensured the rescue of the club with a commitment of 20 million euros, but also initiated the disempowerment of BVB's management with a declaration associated with the payment. In his biography, Homm reports that he actually made money with BVB and wanted to sell it to two Russian oligarchs . When, contrary to his custom, he did a review of the company only after joining, he noticed how badly the club was doing and decided to save it because the losses could not have been afforded.

Escape

In the course of the financial crisis in 2007 , ACM, which often invests in illiquid assets, came under pressure. On the night of September 18, 2007, Homm went into hiding. His successors at the ACM fund accused him of the fact that many “investments” had a far lower value than indicated. The shares of the ACM lost around 93 percent of their value by June 2008. It was suspected that he was on the run with over 150 million euros. When ACM was taken off the stock exchange in April 2009, its assets had shrunk from around $ 3 billion to $ 2.3 million.

On February 25, 2011, the US Securities and Exchange Commission ( SEC) filed a civil suit against Florian Homm and Todd M. Ficeto. The US Drug Police ( DEA ) were also looking for Homm because they suspected he might be involved in money laundering deals with the drug cartels in South America.

According to a private investigator , defrauded investors have put a bounty of 1.5 million euros on Homm. Investigators followed up various leads, including suspicion that Homm lived in Venezuela near Caracas , because a few months before his escape he was shot in Caracas. Officially, it was said that muggers tried to steal his watch. Presumably Homm had already prepared his escape at that time. A subsequent stay in the Caribbean was suspected. Others suspected Homm in Liberia , as he was "cultural attachée Liberias" at the embassy in Paris with an accredited diplomatic passport at UNESCO .

In August 2012 it became known that the investigators who were supposed to determine the whereabouts of Homm had initially stopped this activity. One of the private investigators was asked to stop his investigative activities immediately, as his clients are said to have been massively threatened by unknown people. It had been made clear to them that these threats were related to their investigative activities in the Homm case.

In connection with the planned publication of a book (title: Kopf Geld Jagd ), the proceeds of which Homm wanted to donate to the Liberia Renaissance Foundation , a Swiss foundation for Liberian children, Florian Homm described in several interviews with the Süddeutsche Zeitung , the Stern and the Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung of November 7, 2012 its rise, fall and the hoped-for new beginning. On the same day, the Financial Times Deutschland and Wirtschaftswoche published an interview in which he rejected most of the allegations against him. In response to the bounty placed on him, Spiegel Online published a video recorded by Florian Homm in which Homm comments on the bounty placed on him. Bild am Sonntag reported on December 10, citing "Homm's environment" that Homm wants to take part in the trials in the United States.

Parallel to the coverage of the New York Times and the Financial Times , in which Homm spoke about his return, he also published his book in English (title: Rogue Financier ). In Germany, his autobiography reached number 27 on the Spiegel bestseller list in calendar week 47 , number 11 on the bestseller list of Manager Magazin 01/2013 and made it into the top 40 annual bestsellers on the 2012 business book bestseller list of Manager Magazin.

On March 3, 2013, Homm had an appearance on the ZDF talk show Peter Hahne (title: Euro crisis - financial shark meets socialist ) in Berlin together with the deputy left chairman Sahra Wagenknecht and was able to leave the studio unmolested.

Arrest and extradition detention in Italy

At noon on March 8, 2013, the Italian police arrested the fugitive in the Uffizi Gallery in Florence , Italy , following a tip from FBI agents . He was there in the company of his divorced wife, his son Conrad and his girlfriend. Two days before his arrest, on March 6, 2013, the US Federal Police had obtained an arrest warrant against Homm from the responsible US Federal Court in Los Angeles in order to be able to apply for his extradition to the judicial authorities in Italy after his planned arrest . On March 6, Homm traveled by train from Munich to Italy. The Los Angeles judicial authorities have alleged conspiracy and securities fraud. Florian Homm was in extradition custody in Pisa . He was later transferred from Florence to a prison in Pisa in order to provide adequate health care. In the Federal Republic of Germany there was no investigation against Homm.

The Italian Supreme Court of Appeal, Corte Suprema di Cassazione in Rome, decided on January 9, 2014 on the extradition of the financial investor suffering from multiple sclerosis . Homm himself claims that he was denied important medication while in detention. Florian Homm, imprisoned in Italy, was supposed to be extradited to the USA. The decision of the court of appeal required the approval of the Italian Ministry of Justice . Homm's defense examined the possibility of referring to the European Court of Human Rights (ECHR) for violation of human rights . This would not postpone the extradition.

As a hedge fund manager Homm investors in the ACM hedge fund losses will have provided around 200 million dollars and the US Securities and Exchange Commission SEC requires him around 56 million dollars. The penalty limit for a conviction in the US could be up to 225 years in prison.

In June 2014, Homm was released from custody in Italy because the maximum length of extradition custody had expired. The extradition to the USA was therefore suspended and Homm returned to Germany.

Further career

Just six months after his release from extradition detention in Italy in June 2014 , Homm received an invitation to a lecture on ethics and management at the private university for applied management in Erding . On November 5, 2014, at the invitation of the University of Applied Management in Erding , he spoke about his alleged change from a suspected investment fraudster to a believing Christian and presented his autobiography Kopf Geld Jagd . Since October 2016, Homm has been running a video blog on economic issues on YouTube. Homm appears as the protagonist in the Amazon Studios-produced documentary Generation Wealth by Lauren Greenfield . The film is the portrait of a global culture of the irrepressible addiction for beauty, consumption, money and fame. Since 2016, Homm has been designing the opinion section Florian Homm speaks Klartext at RT Deutsch , the German-language internet service of the Russian foreign television broadcaster RT . In November 2017, Homm started working on a stock market letter called Florian Homm Long & Short by DZM Switzerland .

Private

Fonts

A selection of the writings by Florian Homm:

literature

Web links

References and comments

  1. ↑ DER SPIEGEL: Florian Homm: Italy releases alleged investment fraudsters - DER SPIEGEL - Economy. Retrieved July 2, 2020 .
  2. ↑ Catherine Boss, Christian Brönnimann: Money laundering scandal: the tracks covered with UBS gold , sonntagszeitung.ch, December 20, 2015.
  3. ↑ See family tree in: Thomas Veszelits: The Neckermanns: Light and shadow of a German family of entrepreneurs. Campus, Frankfurt am Main 2005, ISBN 3-593-37406-4 .
  4. ↑ Tahir Chaudhry: Florian Homm: "I was mutated into a money-increasing robot." In: Galore Interviews. Retrieved February 23, 2019 .
  5. ↑ Florian Homm - A phantom returns. ( Memento from June 7, 2013 in the Internet Archive ) In: ftd.de , November 7, 2012.
  6. ↑ "If someone earns a lot of money for me, it touches the core of my soul". In: Focus Money. November 20, 2012, accessed October 14, 2016 .
  7. ↑ a b c d e The world is chasing Florian Homm. ( Memento of May 19, 2012 in the Internet Archive ) In: FTD , accessed on June 18, 2012.
  8. ↑ Disempowerment in three steps. In: Süddeutsche Zeitung , accessed on June 18, 2012.
  9. ↑ Florian Homm: Head Money Hunt, How I was gunned down in Venezuela while I was trying to save Borussia Dortmund. FinanzBook Verlag, 2012, ISBN 978-3-86248-414-0 , p. 236. Limited preview in the Google book search.
  10. ↑ Leo Müller : Bank robbers. Berlin 2010, p. 179f.
  11. ^ A Money Manager's Ultimate Fight Game. Barron's, June 2, 2008, accessed May 17, 2012.
  12. ↑ Official filing announcement by the SEC SEC , February 25, 2011, accessed May 17, 2012.
  13. ↑ Speculator Florian Homm - head, money, hunter. In: Stern Online. 17th May 2012.
  14. ↑ a b c investigation stopped: Florian Homm threatens his hunters. ( Memento of August 8, 2012 in the Internet Archive ) In: FTD , August 7, 2012.
  15. ↑ Florian Homm - A phantom returns. ( Memento from June 7, 2013 in the Internet Archive ) In: ftd.de , November 7, 2012.
  16. ↑ Comeback of Florian Homm: "Even a reformed pit bull is still one" seen 17-08-27 . In: Handelsblatt . November 8, 2012.
  17. ↑ "I was a weak man" . In: sueddeutsche.de , November 7, 2012.
  18. ↑ Ex-hedge fund manager Florian Homm: "Greed is not cool" . In: stern.de , November 7, 2012.
  19. ↑ Florian Homm - The short seller of his life. In: faz.de , November 7, 2012.
  20. ↑ Florian Homm - A phantom returns. ( Memento from June 7, 2013 in the Internet Archive ) In: ftd.de , November 7, 2012.
  21. ↑ Spectacular return: the stock exchange supervisory authority wants to make short work of Homm. In: wiwo.de , November 19
  22. ↑ Statement: Florian Homm on the bounty placed on him. In: spiegel.de , November 7th
  23. ↑ Investor Homm wants to defend himself in court. In: Bild.de , December 10, 2012.
  24. ^ After 5 Years of Hiding, a Banker Reappears. In: nytimes.com , December 12, 2012.
  25. ↑ Buchreport express , Volume 38, ISSN  1615-0732 , p. 30.
  26. ↑ Buchreport express , Volume 43, ISSN  1615-0732 , p. 37.
  27. ↑ Book Report , Volume 44, ISSN  1615-0724 , p 70th
  28. ↑ When the presenter asked if Homm wasn't afraid to appear on the live broadcast, Homm said conspiratorially that his departure was carefully planned.
  29. ^ FBI Los Angeles press release of March 8, 2013 , accessed March 14, 2012.
  30. ↑ Speculators - One Journey Too Much Website Spiegel-Online, “Der Spiegel” 14/2013, March 30, 2013. Article Andreas Wassermann. Retrieved July 19, 2013.
  31. ↑ Hedge fund manager - Imprisoned Florian Homm on infirmary relocates website finanzen.net. Article by Thomas Schmidtutz, “Euro am Sonntag”, July 2, 2013. Accessed July 19, 2013.
  32. ↑ Claudia Wiggen Broker: Florian Homm: Finanzhai, Non smoking | Stock market history | boerse.ARD.de . In: boerse.ARD.de . ( ard.de [accessed on November 23, 2017]).
  33. ↑ Ex-hedge fund manager: Florian Homm can be extradited . April 1, 2014 ( handelsblatt.com [accessed October 18, 2016]).
  34. ↑ Billion juggler Homm is extradited to the USA Despite having MS. Website Stern, January 10, 2014, authors Nina Poelchau and Andrea Rungg. Retrieved February 7, 2014.
  35. ↑ Florian Homm meets bounty hunters: an ominous meeting shortly before the wanted hedge fund manager is arrested. Website news aktuell, article on March 20, 2013. Accessed July 19, 2013.
  36. ↑ Financial juggler Homm, suffering from MS: Italian judges allow extradition to the USA. Website Spiegel-online. Retrieved February 8, 2014.
  37. ↑ Florian Homm faces 225 years imprisonment . Süddeutsche from April 1, 2014, accessed on April 22, 2014.
  38. ↑ No extradition: Suspected asset fraudster Homm is free. In: www.wiwo.de. June 5, 2014, accessed October 18, 2016 .
  39. ↑ Florian Homm at the HAM in Erding - About ethics in management , YouTube channel of the University of Applied Management, February 12, 2015.
  40. ↑ "Finanzhai" Homm and ethics ( Memento of 8 November 2014 Internet Archive ) In: br.de . 5th November 2014.
  41. ↑ How a former IRA man 'saved' Germany's 'anti-Christ financier' In: The Irish Times . December 8, 2014.
  42. ↑ From Arch Capitalists to Arch Christians , In: Süddeutsche Zeitung . December 6, 2014.
  43. ↑ From Saul to Paul - How a ruthless finance shark turned his life inside out In: The Huffington Post . February 10, 2015.
  44. ↑ Tahir Chaudhry: Florian Homm: "I was mutated into a money-increasing robot." In: Galore Interviews. December 17, 2018, accessed February 23, 2019 .
  45. ↑ Sabine Sasse: Independence looks different - Putin's trumpets. Tagesspiegel, April 15, 2013.
  46. ↑ The Kremlin on All Channels: How the Russian State Controls Television. (PDF), Reporters Without Borders , October 2013, p. 32 ff.
  47. ↑ a b DZM Switzerland stock exchange letter - Florian Homm Long & Short created by DZM CH. Retrieved June 17, 2018 .
  48. ↑ Stefan Beutelsbacher: Florian Homm: Why the stock market star wants to bet against companies . In: THE WORLD . October 21, 2017 ( welt.de [accessed October 24, 2017]).
  49. ↑ OLMOMS e. V. - Our Lady's Message of Mercy to the World. Retrieved September 23, 2017 .
  50. ↑ Thallion - Riding and Animal Assisted Therapy for Children. Retrieved September 23, 2017 .
personal data
SURNAME Homm, Florian
ALTERNATIVE NAMES Hom, Florian Wilhelm Jürgen (full name)
BRIEF DESCRIPTION German fund manager
DATE OF BIRTH October 7, 1959
PLACE OF BIRTH Oberursel