More than 100000 joined marches as the daily rallies and their 6 week the protesters want the authoritarian leader a legs under look to step down. A new tent city has opened on the greek island of last boss the replacement accommodation is meant to house migrants left homeless after fires destroyed the notorious morea refugee camp but most of those displaced say conditions on the island are unbearable and that they just want to leave. This is the news from berlin follow us on twitter and instagram at d w news or visit our web site thats dot com. Org. This is the story of a man who was very good at selling things that didnt exist. Manfred shmita and was at the center of the biggest financial fraud case in postwar german history. He served 6 years in prison for his crimes. At the height of his tower big money had his own jess is an airfield and several luxury homes. Politicians gathered around him. Banks lend him huge amounts of money nothing was too good for him. We wanted to find out how he managed to scam billions in a complex pyramid scheme. Today a month me their lives on mediocre where he retired after he got out of prison. Smita wants to keep his family out of the street pulls his exwife and 2 children live in switzerland warm smita grew up in castle where his father was a businessman and he discovered at an early age that he had a talent for making money up power we met him at one of his favorite restaurants near panama. On. Course i was always ambitious i wanted to have a job out of for cold when i was in college i sold cars and. First 3 w. s and then mercedes you have me say 3 more that when i was 16 i sold Life Insurance after school for the 4th year i worked for a company that was owned by the father of one of my friends who. I always wanted to have something to do but at some point i took a wrong turn. And i either didnt notice at the time or realized it too late. To be the mad. Prosecutors say that she needed company flow text cheated banks and Leasing Companies out of more than 4000000000 monks. I know tough man was one of the prosecutors in shmeat us case documents used as evidence at his trial stored in this basement room at the Prosecutors Office in month im. Hofmann carried out extensive interviews with smita we asked him what drove me to to commit these crimes. At 1st he didnt have a lot of friends at school. But at the age of 16 in the mid 1960 s. He got a moped. And submitted it none of the other kids had one more peter sagal and he used that moped to make friends with more. He wanted to be popular on you know me. And i think that was a basic component of his character and weve been playing constantly sought the approval of others of his he im from name. Manfred sneed i founded flow tex in 1994 and became enormously successful as the next several years. Also forced on france and germany could be pretty intimidating so he was always very well dressed with a tailor made suits and a rolex on his wrist. A very impressive and examples on the other muslim he takes everything he does to extremes. And when he goes after something goes for a chase is it like a terrier until they get silly and tell. The boy has started out with a moped had made it to the top and now owned a fleet of luxury cars. In 1909 me to celebrated his 50th birthday with a ga event at his estate or 2 im back on the outskirts of cars where. Downtown of im invited about 300 people politicians Business Executives sports stars anybody who is anybody by the lord is into it then im a lot of people were dying to get an invitation. It was the event of a year in the state of baton rouge my back i mean. Meter lived a life of luxury a private jet with gold from. Villas all over the world. Florida europe and some of. The end 3 yachts the largest was 55 meters long. From the sultan of brunei. Docks not to his extravagance was excessive. On the one hand that sort of lifestyle makes some people envious not to live of their i know on the other hand envy is the highest form of recognition night if the form to meet a used his position to win approval from people would. Become not to. He had all the toys that anyone could want a huge collection of beautiful cars yachts jet aircraft. And even had his own airport who else has that. Which it meant for me that she visit the airfield that he used to and its now the culls who bought him bought in international airports. For this report me to agree to visit some of the places that played an Important Role in his life as he made his way to the tunnel. He used to come here often at one time he had 2 private planes and a helicopter parked here. He built his Business Empire on a Technology Concept that he discovered in the late 1980 s. A u. S. Company called flown well developed a horizontal drilling system so that utility lines could be laid without causing a lot of environmental damage. Money for cheney to adapt to this idea and convince banks and Leasing Companies to invest in it. No wonder the so since we were convinced that this was a great system and the banks thought so as well and frankly they gave us 20000000 to develop the equipment we neednt. On the sum of an orchid market smita promoted his concept with expensive advents that were broadcast on prime time german t. V. Stuff maybe a gas line and remind us on those were doing it underground but yet underground without digging out you know if its a new system. But the commercials were deceptive in such as the drilling machines didnt. Rocks and existing 9 got in the way. Says she does this never really got off the ground but he managed to convince investors that his Company Turning a profit. We actually started out piecemeal this its not like my partner and i actually planned to rip people off. And we believed in this concept of. A fall we wanted it to be a success so we manufactured statistics that appeared to make it a success we were counting on future sales and thats how we came up with this system and the thesis is themed on open stand the banks were delighted to help finance this project. Because. At the height of the scandal smita had convinced investors that his company had more than 3000 drilling machines but in reality they were just under 300. To keep stacked and keeping the scheme going wish me to stay as a salesman. And he can be very charming. If youve known him a long time like i have theres those who are less impressed by him. But most people were taken in by a charm and to put it bluntly. My guns. Hasnt flown over his former Company Headquarters in the early 2 decades. Today were taking the same routes that he did back then. We were right over it. It would have been a short trip by car but smita preferred to take the chopper. But its faster and no traffic jams either. He often took investors along the helicopter was on call 24 hours a day but we were right over it. And think of it were going to learn that. Right there where those containers are. Worked in a luxurious lee appointed office hes come a long way from selling used cars for a living. This is where he built a Business Empire that turned out to be little more than a house of cards. And it came crashing down on february 4th 2000. Police arrested month which meta at his office. For most of his employees this development came as a complete surprise. It was on a friday afternoon when most of the work has were getting ready to go home. Style far longer monopoly so it was the police and some tax investigators i could hardly believe it im against on those and i was shocked its its Wendy Sherman i thought thats laughable they wouldnt be here if they didnt have a good reason to. Police and officials from the Prosecutors Office carried out boxes full of evidence this was shaping up to be the biggest case of financial fraud in postwar german history. 2 decades later this is all that remains of the flow tech sign on top of this building. The company that had been the darling of bankers and politicians went out of business in late 1999. This is the 1st time that shmita has been back here since flow techs collapsed. The frantic call but its a very strange feeling to be here after 18 years and 2 weeks ago here to comment. On how the swine kopf i could still see the place in my mind but now that im actually here its difficult for me to look back at everything that happened with a list them out of a group of 3 of them left. Or the story of that was the hardest day of my life and. He hasnt been back here since the day he was arrested. Well the this was mrs lobs office my secretary. Its almost hard to believe that this is the place wish me to i made all of his deals. This is really difficult. Most of us are desk. Over here right there. Alone i feel like im in a movie right now and. Before this im glad that i came back here though so that i can somehow get close this chapter of my life. But its not easy and thought. Id like to leave now. The flow tax system worked for 5 years smita kept selling machines even though most of them existed only on paper. He created an elaborate business for a song to fool his investments. We took a creative approach when the Bank Auditors wanted to see some drilling machines and wed switch the identification plates. And show them as much equipment as they wanted. In the holocaust and he got so important and. They kept some of the machines in this warehouse officials from the banks and Leasing Companies had to