To breach his own
Kinowelt owner indicted in bankruptcy
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MUNICH -- Just when it looked like Teutonic producer-distrib Kinowelt had finally left its past troubles behind, co-founder and owner Michael Koelmel has been indicted by Munich's public prosecutor on 21 cases of breach of trust, two cases of bankruptcy and one case of obstructing insolvency proceedings.
Charges, filed Wednesday, relate to Kinowelt's bankruptcy in 2001, which went hand in hand with the collapse of the Neuer Markt.
In July 2004, a Munich court sentenced Koelmel to 22 months of probation and fined him E326,000 ($400,000) for breach of trust and obstructing insolvency proceedings in connection with the bankruptcy. He was acquitted of fraud charges.
Prosecutors had wanted a nine-year prison term for Koelmel who, together with brother Rainer, transformed the company, founded in 1984, from an arthouse distributor into a major international media conglom that, for a short time, rivaled TV powerhouse RTL and the now-defunct Kirch Media empire.
When Koelmel tried to appeal against the sentence at Germany's High Court, his appeal was rejected.
"The charges that we're making against Mr. Koelmel now were not addressed in the previous court case, because the public prosecution was not ready then. But they do need to be addressed and that's what we're doing," said senior prosecutor Anton Winkler, who acts as spokesman for the Munich public prosecution.
Despite the legal problems, the Koelmels bought back Kinowelt's assets in 2003 and have been successfully rebuilding the company.
Koelmel and his lawyers have three to four weeks to reply to the charges against him. The courts will then decide whether the public prosecutor's case is strong enough to go to trial.
Koelmel was not available for comment.
