Liechtenstein Robin Hood believed dead after banker shooting

Police in Liechtenstein said Monday that a self-styled "Robin Hood" suspected of killing a banker in a financial feud is believed to have committed suicide, but that efforts to locate him continued. Liechtenstein police said officers had found Juergen Hermann's driving licence and his passport, the latter containing a hand-written note in which he confessed to the shooting and bid farewell to the world. Sniffer dogs followed a trail to the bank of the River Rhine, where the suspect's clothes were found. As a result, it appeared likely that Hermann had taken his own life, police said, but efforts to locate him would nonetheless continue. Hermann, an engineer, financier and technology investor, is the prime suspect in Monday's fatal shooting of Juergen Frick, the boss of Liechtenstein's Bank Frick. The killing sparked a manhunt in the tiny Alpine principality, where violent crime is unusual, and police had warned the public that Hermann was considered armed and dangerous. In an apparent challenge, content on Hermann's website Monday had been replaced with the English words: "Catch me if you can, dead or alive, reward 200,000,000 CHF". Hermann, who calls himself the "Robin Hood of Liechtenstein" on his website, has spent seven years sparring with Bank Frick and the tax haven's government over what he alleges is wrongdoing that has cost him huge sums. He is seeking 200 million Swiss frans (163 million euros, $225 million) from the state and 33 million Swiss francs from Bank Frick over the 2005 collapse of his hi-tech investment company and funds, which had been put on watch by the authorities. Hermann has also challenged the "financial mafia" which, he alleges, control the country of some 37,000 people sandwiched between Switzerland and Austria. In line with Liechtenstein legal custom, police did not identify Frick as the victim. But his name was published in several media reports, which also said he was related to the country's former prime minister. The body was found by an employee Monday morning in a bank's underground carpark in Balzers, a town in southern Liechtenstein. Hermann, who was spotted on the carpark's video surveillance, was believed to have followed Frick's car into the carpark on foot, where he shot him as he got out of the vehicle. His getaway car was found later Monday abandoned in the countryside near the River Rhine in the north of the country and the Swiss and Austrian borders. Police deployed dogs and helicopters to comb through the sealed-off area and urged the public to stay away and exercise maximum caution if they stumbled upon Hermann.