A German court on Wednesday sentenced Peter Fitzek, the self-declared "King of Germany", to jail for setting up an illegal bank and embezzling up 1.3 million euros of deposits. Fitzek had installed his "kingdom" on the site of a former hospital in the eastern city of Wittenberg in 2012, and crowned himself sovereign.
He had also illegally set up a bank that he operated between 2009 and 2013. Around 600 people banked with him, entrusting him with deposits totalling around 1.7 million euros ($1.8 million). But prosecutors said Fitzek embezzled 1.3 million euros of the deposits for his own use. Sentencing Fitzek to three years and eight months in prison, presiding judge Ursula Mertens noted that no proper accounting exists of the sums handled by Fitzek.