A FORMER Schalke player has been jailed for faking his own death in a scam that saw a life insurance premium worth £1million granted to him and his wife after the hoax.
Hiannick Kamba, 35 and wife named only as Christina von G, 41 due the local strict privacy laws were given a three year and 10 month sentence in prison for the offence.
The scheme began back in 2016, when Kamba returned home to his home country of Democratic Republic of the Congo and apparently passed away in a car crash, so says German publication Bild.
Congolese 🇨🇩 player Hiannick Kamba has been discovered alive in Germany.
The former Schalke right back was reported dead in January 2016 after a car accident in DR Congo.
His ex-wife who claimed a 6-figure amount on his life insurance is being investigated for insurance fraud. pic.twitter.com/lJAzZkNhim— Usher Komugisha (@UsherKomugisha) May 5, 2020
Following the fake passing, his wife cashed out on his life insurance and collected the lump sum using the death cert from Congo as proof of the non-event.
This wasn't the first time that the pair had decided to take out a policy of £505k before, which doubled in the event of a death.
There was another policy of £3.37million that was also taken out, but it was rejected
Evonik, a chemical plant where Kamba worked after ending his professional football career also played Kamba's wife received £84.2k in compensation.
VfB Huls, one of Kamba's former clubs, even wrote an obituary for him, stating:
"He represented the ideas and values of our club like few others.
"His demise will leave a big gap. Hiannick is undoubtedly a bitter sporting loss for us, but primarily we will miss him as a fellow human being."
The former right-back, who once played alongside the German number 1, Manuel Neuer in Schalke's youth academy, told the authorities that he was innocent and did not fake his own death after an investigation was launched by police.
Schalke’s Hiannick Kamba was announced dead at the age of 33, after a car accident in his native country of Congo.
4 years and 4 months later, he was discovered alive and working in a power plant in Germany’s Ruhr Valley.— Zach Lowy (@ZachLowy) May 4, 2020
The reasons Kamba gave was that he was kidnapped, dragged to a remote village and left with no money.
Kamba claimed he could not contact the outside world removing the outcome of fake death
Kamba reported to the German embassy in the capital Kinshasa in March 2018 that his mother and wife had kidnapped and dumped him in the jungle so they could cash in on the insurance scheme, according to German newspaper Sueddeutsche Zeitung.
He claimed they took all of his money, papers and mobile phone making it impossible for to contact the outside world.
Kamba was in fact alive and returned to work as a chemical technician again at Evonik in 2019.
Evonik decided to take him back on again even after Kamba received a fake payout.
Kamba and his wife were both put on trial for committing fraud, which they both denied.
Prosecutor Hauke Schlick said that the kidnapping story did not add up, as the defendant was an intelligent person who would have surely been able to find some way of contacting the outside world, according to Bild.
Michael-Konrad Wolff, Christina von G.'s lawyer, said: "She was as surprised by the news of his death as anyone else. Her main concern was initially how she could have the body transferred to Germany."
Both defendants remained silent during the trial, which ended with them receiving equal sentences of three years and 10 months.
The ruling is not yet binding and the defendants can still appeal.
Four years ago, former Schalke defender Hiannick Kamba was pronounced dead in a car accident.
He's now been found alive and well.
This is incredible 👇— GOAL News (@GoalNews) May 4, 2020
