Asset Tracing by Aaden Detective Agency Cologne for an Inheritance | Part 2

In Part 1 of this article, you received background information on the investigations conducted by the Aaden Corporate Detective Agency Cologne in this case, as well as an account of the first steps of our research. Below, you will learn how the matter turned out.

Meeting with the Suspected Tax Advisor

Our detective from Cologne was received very warmly by the tax advisor and his wife, apparently without any reservations or guilty conscience. The wife stated that she had been friends with Ms. Anders and that her husband had therefore helped the deceased with her tax matters. That had supposedly begun around 2011. The tax advisor confirmed that previous tax returns did indeed reveal a considerable earlier level of wealth on the part of the deceased. However, hardly anything of it remained by the time he first gained access in 2011. Ms. Anders had spoken several times about an account in the Benelux region, but according to the tax advisor, “in my time” nothing was left there.

She had already lost her job years earlier and therefore no longer had any income of her own. When our Cologne private detective asked about the reason for the significant reduction in assets, the tax advisor mentioned obvious psychological problems in Ms. Anders. She had often behaved paranoically, tended toward spontaneous outbursts of anger, and handled her finances in a completely irresponsible manner; among other things, she had invested enormous sums in a “legal” pyramid scheme (tax advisor: “fool’s bait”) and lost almost the entire investment. He also hinted at an alcohol problem, but did not want to elaborate further, as he did not know Ms. Anders that well — these questions would have to be answered by his wife. However, she had already driven to work during our private investigator’s visit from Cologne.

Meeting with the Former Employer

An investigator from the Aaden Detective Agency Cologne visited the former employer of Ms. Anders. When he explained who the conversation was about, the businessman sighed and invited the detective into his office. Ms. Anders had worked for him for many years, but at some point her behavior changed so drastically — she became insulting toward him, her colleagues, and customers — that he could no longer employ her without endangering the reputation of his business. In addition, dubious men constantly appeared at the company to pick her up. She greeted most of them by kissing them on the mouth.

When the employer dismissed her, she threatened to make numerous “completely fabricated” accusations public, he told our Cologne detective. They even saw each other again in court, but the hearing was over in less than five minutes. Ms. Anders clearly had psychological problems, and this had not escaped the judge’s notice. What exactly those problems were and what the accusations against him were based on, the businessman kept extremely vague — it was obviously a very uncomfortable topic for him.

Another Contact Person Opens Up New Perspectives

The Aaden Corporate Detective Agency Cologne researched the contact details of another person with whom Ms. Anders, according to her calendar, had met very regularly. That person readily agreed to a meeting and said that she had been the closest and, in all likelihood, the only friend of the deceased in recent years. No one else had been able to tolerate Ms. Anders for long, as she “kept flipping out” and could be very hurtful. In addition, the conversations almost always revolved around sex and were very suggestive. From the conversation with this friend, our private detectives were able to extract several crucial clues, which allowed the puzzle pieces already gathered to form a coherent overall picture.

Financing of the Sister’s “Luxury Estate”

First, the friend explained to our Cologne detective that Ms. Bungert’s sister had never been excessively wealthy and had clearly overextended herself with the house construction together with her husband. She knew this because the sister had indeed, as Ms. Bungert suspected, regularly asked the mother for money, but aside from one single occasion she had not been able to give her anything because she was “too busy with herself.” On that one occasion, a gift of around €15,000 prevented the forced sale of the well-known property — but that was long before Ms. Anders’ death. The house purchase and loan were concluded immediately before the real estate bubble burst in the summer of 2007. As a result, all preliminary calculations became obsolete, yet they remained bound by fixed contracts that were now overpriced.

Promiscuity and Drug Addiction

The detective from the Aaden Corporate Detective Agency Cologne asked the friend whether she knew how all the money that had once belonged to the deceased had disappeared. She was not certain, but believed it was a combination of bad investments (“pipe dreams”), poor choices in men, and alcohol and drug addiction. The investigator, for whom at least the last piece of information was completely new, asked for further explanation: Ms. Anders had shown signs of sex addiction and had constantly slept with different men, whom she also supported financially, so these “male affairs” alone must have consumed a great deal of money.

Through “one of those guys,” she had gotten into drugs and slid from crack to crystal meth. In addition, she had always had problems with alcohol, taken sleeping pills, and to combat her anxiety attacks, which had arisen from drug use, she had also taken psychotropic medication “like Smarties.” Several stays in clinics had brought no improvement. After the conversation, the Aaden Detective Agency Cologne researched whether such stays had actually taken place. The fact that this could be confirmed reinforced the credibility of the statements made by the interviewed friend.

Delusions and Fines

She also reported that there had always been vast quantities of empty bottles in Ms. Anders’ apartment. She directly attributed the deceased’s premature death in her early fifties to her addictive behavior: “That ruined her!” In addition, her alcohol and drug problems were certainly the reason for losing her job. Ms. Anders had also later claimed several times that her boss had sexually harassed her — which may have been the reason why he remained so guarded in the conversation with our Cologne corporate detective. The interviewee described these claims as “delusions.”

According to the friend, there had in fact been money in the Benelux countries, namely in Luxembourg. However, withdrawals had long since exhausted everything by the time Ms. Anders died. She also had to pay high fines several times for driving under the influence of alcohol and/or without a driver’s license — this statement could also be confirmed by the Aaden Corporate Detective Agency Cologne in its follow-up research.

Termination of the Investigation for Reasons of Respect

At this stage of the investigation, a meeting took place between Ms. Bungert and the Aaden detectives Cologne so that the client could be informed of the findings so far and shown further possibilities for research. She asked a few questions and then requested some time to think about how she should deal with the results obtained so far.

The next day, she called the Aaden Detective Agency Cologne and said that she thanked the investigators for their work, but did not want any deeper digging, as she would rather remember her mother as the person she had known from childhood. Ms. Bungert feared further unpleasant revelations that would probably not have brought any benefit in terms of financial gain, but could have caused further damage to the memory of the deceased.