$26.8M RESTITUTION, 15 YEARS, AND THE CEO IS POSTING HIKING PHOTOS

🚨 $26.8 million in restitution, 15 years in prison, and the convicted CEO is posting hiking photos from the Bavarian Alps.

Business Insider reports that Bernhard Fritsch, 65, has been added to the FBI's new "Most Wanted Fraudsters" list.

The money story: federal officials say Fritsch raised between $20 million and $30 million from investors between 2014 and 2017 for StarClub, whose app was meant to help celebrities and influencers monetize their reach through advertising.

Prosecutors charged him in 2017, alleging he made false statements to investors, including that his company would strike deals with major media companies like Disney and that acquisition offers were coming.

At least $7.3 million of investor money is alleged to have ended up in his personal accounts instead, funding a McLaren, a Rolls-Royce, a yacht, and a mortgage on a villa near Carbon Beach in Malibu.

After a nine-day trial in April last year, a jury found him guilty on one of two wire fraud counts. His attorney had argued he was no flight risk because he would be leaving his two children behind.

📉 In June 2025, the FBI says, he cut off his court-ordered ankle monitor and fled to Mexico, surfacing in Sinaloa. Mexican authorities caught him in September, allegedly carrying forged documents, then released him on condition he check in every two weeks. In early October he boarded a Lufthansa flight from Mexico City to Munich.

A judge in Los Angeles then sentenced him in absentia to 15 years, a $35,000 fine, and nearly $26.8 million in restitution. Article 16 of Germany's constitution bars the extradition of German citizens, so the sentence cannot reach him while he stays home.

The FBI has posted a $150,000 bounty. His partner, former actress Lucy Weist, pleaded guilty in June to being an accessory after the fact and faces up to five years.

Who should be answering for the ankle monitor here?

#uproar #causeanuproar #fbi #whitecollar #fraud