Embezzlement of Goods (Case Study)

The client of Kurtz Investigations Kiel and Schleswig-Holstein, a sales company near Solingen, had delivered goods worth almost €400,000 to a German businessman residing in Hamburg. This gentleman owns or operates several companies, including some in Denmark. To this day, our client is still awaiting payment of the purchase price. As there were rumours that the recipient company was on the verge of bankruptcy, our Danish detectives were tasked with determining the whereabouts of the unpaid goods. The main focus was a company located in Padborg, immediately on the border with Flensburg.

Interview at the Target Company | Warehouse Inspection

Following preliminary research via the internet and telephone, which indicated a lorry with a trailer connected to the collection of the missing goods, our lead detective from Kiel travelled to the target company in Padborg, Denmark, to gain a first impression. At first glance, there was not much activity, although both the lorry and the trailer were present on site. A Rottweiler guarded the relatively deserted premises. Our corporate detective from Kiel recognised that acting alone would not be safe and therefore requested a second investigator from our client.

The following morning, Kurtz Investigations Kiel and Schleswig-Holstein began surveillance of the company premises in Padborg. By this time, the lorry was no longer present and was presumably collecting or delivering goods. Only a single male individual was visible on the entire site. Our private detective from Kiel, an expert in investigations related to the logistics sector, approached the man and conducted an interview. The man claimed to have no involvement with the company’s operations, acting solely as a driver – an implausible assertion given that he was the only person on the site. Together with this individual, our Danish corporate detective inspected the warehouse to check for the missing goods. As the items could not be found there, the employee stated that they had been stored for a few days before being moved to one of two possible other companies in Padborg, although he could not recall which one with certainty.

Allegedly Innocuous Target Companies

Subsequently, our detective in Denmark visited the two mentioned companies where the goods were allegedly taken. At the first company, an employee stated that he had no knowledge of the goods and that, given the small size of the local storage facility, no such items would be stored there. In addition, the company did not deal with this type of merchandise.

The second company, a supermarket chain, was located directly across the street. Here too, no one had ever heard of the missing goods. In neighbouring Harrislee, the detective from Schleswig-Holstein was advised to check the branch to see whether the missing goods were part of the range. This check proved negative: the products were neither on the shelves nor could the branch manager locate a past order using the EAN in the computer.

A later revisit to the companies’ warehouses confirmed the credibility of the assurances that no goods are handled without delivery notes and transport documents. Previously, the alleged transport driver of the originally suspicious company had claimed that he never received papers when delivering to these two companies.

Informant Demands Commission

After the uninformative visits to the two companies, the detective from Kurtz Investigations Schleswig-Holstein returned to the original target company. The tipster from the morning, who had claimed no involvement with the company, was sitting at a desk in the office. When questioned again about the case, he claimed there were no documents regarding the transaction, or if there were, they were with the shareholders in Copenhagen. Our detective from Kiel then applied more pressure in the interview – and the individual relented. He might be able to assist with the recovery and seizure of the goods. “Might” in this context implied a monetary reward for this “assistance,” with the demand set at €15,000.

Following consultation with our client near Solingen, the corporate detective from Kurtz Investigations Kiel negotiated with the informant the next day, reducing the payment to €9,000. The goods were located in Odense, Denmark, near a customs export point to Germany. It should be noted that the nature of the goods entitled the Danish authorities to impose a so-called luxury tax. This tax is refunded upon import into Germany. The informant assured our detective that he would call 4–5 hours before the goods were transported to Germany to enable seizure by the authorities.

Bureaucratic Fiasco in Germany

To ensure official seizure of the embezzled goods, our Kiel detective went to the police station in Harrislee. However, it was closed and referred him to the Federal Police in Flensburg. The Federal Police declined responsibility and directed the detective to the Criminal Investigation Department (Kripo) Flensburg. A senior police commissioner at Kripo Flensburg informed him that jurisdiction lay with the Public Prosecutor’s Office in Düsseldorf, as the case had been reported there. From Düsseldorf, official assistance in Flensburg would need to be requested using a file reference – which our client did not have. For these bureaucratic reasons, the German authorities were unable to assist when the informant informed our Kiel detective the next morning at 07:28 about the imminent export of the goods to Germany. By 09:30, the detective knew the shipment had returned to Germany and was now moving via unknown routes – the authorities had remained inactive.

On the return from Denmark, our corporate detective made a detour to Hamburg to the residential address of the managing director who owed payment for the goods and against whom a criminal complaint had been filed with the Public Prosecutor’s Office in Düsseldorf. The property is located directly on the Elbchaussee: a two-storey luxury villa with a convertible and a Land Rover belonging to his wife in the driveway. The number of additional vehicles on the property is unknown. Clearly, only the “poorest of the poor” reside here – people for whom the authorities apparently turn a blind eye to mid-six-figure fraud. Unfortunately, experiences like this are common in our work as private detectives. Seized evidence is sometimes mishandled or disappears entirely, complaints are disregarded, and legal loopholes are exploited to the detriment of victims.

No Documentation in the Interim Warehouse in Hamburg

The shock that an initial investigative success had yet yielded no positive result for our Danish client had to be absorbed. Therefore, the investigation resumed twelve days later. At this point, it was uncertain whether the goods could still be located or were even intact.

The first step after resuming investigations involved questioning an employee of the company where the goods had been temporarily stored in Hamburg prior to collection for Padborg. The employee contradicted himself and stated that there were no delivery notes, transport documents, or CMRs for the shipment. He justified this by claiming that foreign hauliers frequently did not understand how to load the goods, let alone what transport documents were. Such undocumented procedures are, of course, unlawful.

Suspicious Supply Routes Between Target Companies

Our detectives from Kiel returned to Padborg to question the informant regarding any new findings. On the way, they encountered the target company’s lorry and decided to follow it. The route appeared uncoordinated and seemed intended to uncover potential followers, as the lorry did not go directly to the two previously visited warehouses in Padborg but circled a roundabout, briefly used the motorway, entered an industrial estate, and then returned to Padborg to the mentioned companies – all without stopping for loading or unloading elsewhere. At the destination, the two corporate detectives identified the driver as the informant, who loaded approximately 15 pallets onto the lorry.

Cooperation from Danish Authorities

In the following days, the detectives surveilled the informant’s company premises in Padborg. Meanwhile, contact was made with Danish authorities, as cooperation with German authorities had proven unproductive. A meeting with a Danish customs officer quickly materialised, and unlike her German counterparts, she showed great interest in the case. All relevant departments – border police, tax office, and customs – are housed in one building, which facilitates fast communication. After a brief exchange, the tax investigation and customs authorities pledged full support, as our detectives had apparently uncovered carousel fraud schemes already under investigation. For record-keeping, Kurtz Investigations Kiel forwarded the contact details of the Danish investigators to the Criminal Police in Mettmann, North Rhine-Westphalia.

Further surveillance provided additional indications of suspected tax evasion/fraud in connection with the luxury tax. Among other observations, loads were transported from Padborg to Flensburg – both locations only a few kilometres apart but on opposite sides of the border. The logic behind this movement is unclear. Observations brought the two companies mentioned by the informant back into focus. As company No. 1 also operated a warehouse in Flensburg, the lead investigator visited it and questioned the warehouse manager about the missing goods. It became apparent that one of the statements was false: either the Padborg warehouse employee or the Flensburg warehouse employee was lying – with a clear motive for the Padborg employee.

Open Ending: Danish Authorities Take Over Investigations

In a subsequent meeting with the Danish tax authorities, our Schleswig-Holstein detectives were informed of what they had suspected from day one: several individuals at the warehouses were known to be violent. As further surveillance yielded no significant results, our client at Kurtz Investigations Kiel and Schleswig-Holstein decided to suspend private investigations and hope for intervention by the Danish authorities.

Note

To preserve discretion and the privacy rights of clients and subjects, all names and locations in this case report have been completely altered.