German students try to salvage graduation parties after fraud scam

Jun 17, 2011, 13:23 GMT

Berlin - Secondary school students across Germany were scrambling to salvage their graduation parties in the wake of a fraud in which a party organizer allegedly made off with the funds the youths had saved up to pay for the parties, reported German media.

In Berlin, students were seeking corporate donations or offers of spaces to host the parties in advance of the summer party season, the period that follows final exams and precedes the start of university studies, reported the daily Berliner Zeitung on Friday.

The Berlin prosecutor's office this week ordered the searches of the offices of the firm Easy Abi, which is alleged to have taken money from about 50 schools across Germany to organize their parties and then kept the money for itself, reported the paper.

The search of its Berlin offices Thursday turned up 360,000 euros (514,000 dollars).

Police have estimated that the final figure for damages could reach into the millions of euros.

The company has posted no comments about the investigation on its website, which still offers deals for party organization.

The news of the alleged scam broke across Germany over the course of the week as students finalizing their party plans realized that many of the planned sites for their parties - typically upscale downtown hotels - had never received downpayments to reserve the party halls.