Four pensioners have appeared in a German court charged with kidnapping a financial adviser they blamed for making rotten US property investments.
The pensioners, two married couples aged between 63 and 79, and a accomplice aged 60, are charged with abducting James Amburn, 56, in June 2009.
The BBC reports they are accused of taking him from his home in western Germany and driving him 450km to southern Bavaria.
They are further accused of forcing him to promise to refund 2.5 million euros.
But Mr Amburn succeeded in hiding a message to the police in a fax to a Swiss trustee and he was freed from the basement of a house after four days.
A verdict is expected on 23 March.
