In a shocking turn of events it has been discovered that the P&R Group sold nearly one million more shipping containers than it owned.
What happened?
The Managers of insolvent P&R Group are being investigated after it was discovered the investment firm sold nearly one million more shipping containers than it owned.
Once the world’s biggest lessor of shipping containers, P&R sells containers to investors and its sister company in Switzerland and rents them out to shipping companies.
Containers retrieved
Shortly after the incident came to light P&R later bought back the containers from investors. The company based near Munich, has sold some 1.6 million containers to around 54,000 investors for a total 3.5 billion euros ($4.12 billion).
Administrator Michael Jaffe said in a statement, “A tally made after its German units filed for insolvency earlier this year has shown that P&R only has a fleet of around 600,000 containers. The discrepancies started more than 10 years ago and need to be cleared up now”.
The Munich prosecutors’ office said that it was investigating former and current managers of P&R on suspicion of fraud. The company did not name the suspects but specified that two people have been targeted for investigation and have expressed their willingness to cooperate with the authorities.
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Source: Reuters
