Friedrich Karl Flick is the reclusive West German owner of a $4 billion industrial empire, a steel, chemical and paper manufacturer that has been controlled by his family for 77 years. His father Friedrich Flick was convicted at Nuremberg of war crimes and served five years in jail before his death in 1972. Last week Flick, 58, announced that he will sell his company to Deutsche Bank. “The decision has been difficult for me,” he said. The sale price was estimated to be about $2 billion, which makes it the largest takeover in West German history. Deutsche Bank immediately announced that it will offer shares of the company to the public next year.
The sale follows a major scandal in which the Flick group was alleged to have made millions of dollars’ worth of secret political contributions. Former Economics Ministers Otto Lambsdorff and Hans Friderichs are currently facing charges about favorable tax credits made available to Flick. These were allegedly given in exchange for Flick’s donations to political parties. A senior company manager, Eberhard von Brauchitsch, has also been implicated in the affair.