Sticky Fingers

Der Spiegel reports 4 arrests as the Hanover based Heros cash courier group, Germany’s largest money transport firm, filed for bankruptcy today.

Heros employ(ed) 2,700 people across Europe, own 23 subsidiaries and have a 50 percent share of the German market transporting around €600 million a day. The company motto is "We're all a big family," according to its Web site. Cash is the most popular form of payment in Germany, accounting for 64 percent of retail sales. The company has operations in the Netherlands, Belgium, Austria, Bulgaria, Hungary, Czech Republic and Slovakia.

An un named executive arrested at Nordcash named only as Manfred D., built 2 hotels in Bulgaria and frequently held exotic parties, once hosting a carnival ball at Gymnich castle near Cologne, says the Cologne Stadt-Anzeiger newspaper. He told his girlfriend he had won the money in the lottery.

Swedish firm Securitas sold their loss making cash handling business to them in November 2005. "The agreement puts an end to Securitas losses in Germany in Cash Handling Services and enables us to further increase focus on the cash handling business in other European countries and in the USA," said President and CEO Thomas Berglund in a statement regarding the sale to Heros.