A gang in Uruguay has stolen 17 gold bars and 1,000 gold coins valued at GBP 1.8 million from a high-security vault in a German billionaire’s mansion.
August von Finck Jr, 91, a German billionaire whose grandfather co-founded the German financial giant Allianz SE, was robbed by a gang who broke into his mansion at an unspecified location near the city of Carmelo in Uruguay on 26th July.
August von Finck Jr comes from a dynasty of bankers who in 2020 reportedly sold 960,000 shares of the Swiss multinational SGS SA valued at USD 2.4 billion (GBP 1.77 billion).
According to Forbes magazine, he is worth USD 8.7 billion (GBP 6.4 billion) making him one of the world’s richest bankers.
Reports about the Hollywood-style heist emerged in local media on 3rd October following the arrest of 11 suspects by the Uruguayan authorities last week.
Finck Jr was first the victim of a failed robbery on 6th July when robbers attempted to break into the high-security vault in the mansion’s basement.
However, the robbers fled the scene with no loot this time around, but according to the news site Infobae, they were undeterred and returned on 27th July with more powerful tools.
The gang reportedly knocked down several doors in the mansion and made their way to the basement.
El Pais reported that the gang had an inside connection who worked in the building at some point and had personal knowledge of its layout.
They cut open the vault using high-powered tools including a disc cutter.
The gang then emptied the vault and made off with 17 gold bars and 1,000 krugerrands, a South African gold coin, which altogether amounted to around USD 2.5 million (GBP 1.85 million).
An investigation was launched and the Uruguayan authorities dismantled the gang suspected of carrying out the heist on an unspecified date last week.
Officers arrested 11 suspects during an operation codenamed ‘Operation Anonymous.
The authorities have so far not recovered any of the stolen goods and the suspects are currently being held in detention.
The investigation is ongoing and the hunt for the billionaire’s missing gold continues.
