The Fake Count Spens

“Attorney Armin Golzem (left), Wolfgang Graf von S. (center) and attorney Klaus Robling yesterday in front of the large commercial criminal chamber in the regional court. Photo: Becker and Bredel” (Source: https://www.saarbruecker-zeitung.de/saarland/graf-aus-faha-muss-ins-gefaengnis_aid-523255)

Counts von Spens, Barons von Eminem family includes:

  • Wolfgang Graf Von Spens Baron Von Einem (Count)
  • (Dr.) Michael Graf Von Spens Baron Von Einem in Essex, United Kingdom (Count)
  • Sandra Gräfin Von Spens Baron Von Einem in Luxembourg (Countess)
  • Alexandra Gräfin Von Spens Baronin Von Einem in Luxembourg (Countess)

*** To clear, these persons are not related to the Spens family from Scotland and their “nobility” is not generally recognized.

 

The false baron’s millions

August 6, 2008

(https://www.volksfreund.de/region/rheinland-pfalz/die-millionen-des-falschen-barons_aid-5908206)

From Volksfreund editor: Bernd Wientjes

Langsur / Mettlach. The shutters in the small, yellow annex behind a farmhouse in Langsur are down. There are three company signs to the right of the door, behind which an office space can be hidden. A wine import and export company, a management company and a printing company operate at the address in Wasserbilliger Straße. The sole employee of the wine import is the managing director, a 44-year-old business economist from Saarland. On Tuesday, investigators from the Saarland State Criminal Police Office (LKA) searched the rented office not far from the Luxembourg border and confiscated documents. Among other things, according to the LKA, 40,000 bottles of Chateau Spens wine were found in the property. They come from a winery near Bordeaux in France, which is in the possession of an alleged count.

This “Count Spens” is the reason for the extensive investigations by the Saarland investigators. The presumed letterbox companies in Langsur are probably part of the opaque company network of the 61-year-old businessman and trained technician. Other companies are located in Switzerland, France, the USA, Bermuda and the Cayman Islands. There are also company rooms in Wasserbillig, Luxembourg, which have also been searched. In addition to luxury cars, data on bank accounts and real estate were also confiscated there. A riding stud in Überherrn in the Saarland should also belong to the man. The presumed letterbox companies in Langsur are probably part of the opaque company network of the 61-year-old businessman and trained technician. Other companies are located in Switzerland, France, the USA, Bermuda and the Cayman Islands. There are also company rooms in Wasserbillig, Luxembourg, which have also been searched. In addition to luxury cars, data on bank accounts and real estate were also confiscated there. A riding stud in Überherrn in the Saarland should also belong to the man. The presumed letterbox companies in Langsur are probably part of the opaque company network of the 61-year-old businessman and trained technician. Other companies are located in Switzerland, France, the USA, Bermuda and the Cayman Islands. There are also company rooms in Wasserbillig, Luxembourg, which have also been searched. In addition to luxury cars, data on bank accounts and real estate were also confiscated there. A riding stud in Überherrn in the Saarland should also belong to the man. In addition to luxury cars, data on bank accounts and real estate were also confiscated there.

The investigators have been tracking the businessman and trained technician for two years. 2006 saw the first complaint against him for money laundering. The man who lives in a noble mansion in a district of Mettlach not far from the Trier-Saarburg district is accused of large-scale investment fraud. 130 investors from Belgium, Germany, Switzerland and Turkey are said to have been cheated by the self-proclaimed count and baron for around 50 million euros. In foreclosures in East Germany, the fake count probably bought cheap real estate through a middleman. The houses were then offered to investors through a real estate fund likely residing in the Cayman Islands. “Graf Spens” [Count Spens] promised dividends between 8.5 and 17 percent. Investors have received shares but which have not been registered or traded on any stock exchange. According to TV information, the worthless papers were printed in a printer in Trier, which has now filed for bankruptcy.

The Mettlacher, who, according to information from our newspaper, served a two-year prison sentence in Trier prison until 2000, of the 50 million euros he collected from bona fide investors, according to the investigations of the LKA finance experts, only ten million actually in real estate invested. The remaining 40 million are said to have gone on his luxury life. The mansion alone in the Mettlach district of Faha, where the man was surprised by investigators and arrested on Tuesday morning, is likely to be worth several million euros. There, among other things, a Porsche, a Bentley, several high-quality Mercedes as well as valuable antiques, weapons, art objects and lots of jewelry were seized by a bailiff. As a result, the cheated investors should get at least part of their money back.

The investigators used furniture and tow trucks to transport the luxury goods away. The false count has been in custody in Saarbrücken since Tuesday. He is being defended by a lawyer from Trier, from whom no statement was received yesterday.


Millions fraud: “Countess” from Faha convicted of aiding and abetting

May 27, 2014

Source: https://www.saarbruecker-zeitung.de/sz-spezial/recht/land-leute-gerichtsurteile/millionen-betrug-graefin-aus-faha-wegen-beihilfe-verurteilt_aid-19137

Saarbrücken After her father was sentenced to nine and a half years in prison in 2010 for fraud in the millions, the daughter of Count S. from Mettlach-Faha was now on trial. She got off lightly than her father.

 

The district court yesterday sentenced a 43-year-old American woman to two years suspended prison sentence for complicity in fraud. The woman is the daughter of Wolfgang, “Graf von S. Baron von E.” (66) from Mettlach-Faha. She is said to have helped her father in 21 cases to cheat investors by a total of more than ten million euros.

The father was sentenced to nine and a half years in prison for this and for further fraudulent acts in 2010 (we reported). According to the court, the man does not come from the German nobility, as his name suggests, but from the bourgeoisie in Schleswig-Holstein. According to this, he temporarily lived in the USA with false papers and married an American there. Their daughter was born in Great Britain in 1971. The defendant in the current trial initially had a civil family name. But that should change.

The short version: After the father was sentenced to imprisonment in Trier under his real name for fraud, the parents divorced. The mother then changed her surname in the USA to “Countess von S. Baronin von E.”. The “Countess” remarried the daughter’s father, who now took her surname and had it converted into the male form before a German court.

Since then, the family members have been named either “Graf …” or “Countess …” depending on their gender. They lived together in a stately home in Mettlach-Faha. From there, the father sold investments between 2003 and 2009. Allegedly, among other things, it was about investments in high-quality real estate funds with a return of between seven and ten percent. In fact, however, the beautiful bonds were printed in the basement and the balance sheets were invented. The money of the investors, who mostly came from Belgium, was put in the real estate of a subsidiary and spent on luxury goods, beautiful houses, expensive cars, jewelry or fine wines. Around half of the investors’ money is likely to have been used in this way.