FLOWTEX CO FOUNDER MANFRED SCHMIDER TALKS TO HIS LAWYER SCHILLER IN MANNHEIM, 2001-12-18 (photo)

Manfred Schmider, co-founder of Flowtex Technologie, the German drilling equipment maker that collapsed, talks to his lawyer Wolf Schiller, as they await the verdict in Mannheim December 18, 2001. It was the biggest fraud trial in Germany since World War Two. Schmider and his co-founder are alleged to have used a web of banks and leasing companies to set up complex contracts under which they leased non-existent drilling machines to companies under their control. Prosecutors allege that over a five-year period more than 3,187 fictitious machines were sold to 52 leasing companies, while only about 250 of the machines ever existed. Schmider was sentenced to twelve years and his businness partner Klaus Kleiser to nine years and nine months for embezzeling up to more than four billon marks. REUTERS/Ralph Orlowski REUTERS JOH