FRANKFURT: A former chief of German foreign intelligence is under investigation for alleged involvement in a plot to kidnap two of the children of a steakhouse chain heiress, prosecutors said Tuesday.
August Hanning, 79, and a retired police officer, who then headed a security firm, are accused of having accepted a commission from Christina Block, whose father founded the popular Block House restaurants.
Prosecutors charge that the two men were involved in an initial failed 2022 plot to kidnap the children from Denmark — which was followed by a successful abduction allegedly involving Israeli ex-security officers on New Year’s Eve 2023.
Hanning and the retired police officer were to be paid more than 100,000 euros ($118,000) in exchange for returning the children in 2022 from Block’s ex-husband, who had custody of the youngsters and was living with them in Denmark, prosecutors in Hamburg said.
The plot involved distracting the children’s escort, using force if necessary, so their mother could put the children into a car and drive them back to Hamburg, northern Germany, they said.
