Big Manni (2019)

Even as a child, Manfred Brenner is enterprising, trading toy cars and earning the nickname Big Manni. As soon as he is grown, he puts his business instincts to work on a larger scale, importing cheap luxury sports cars from Italy, arranging their mandatory TÜV inspections, and then selling them for a profit on the German market. In the mid-1980s, he establishes himself in Ettlingen as a manufacturer of exterior paint under the Flow Color brand, and even becomes the regional market leader. He meets his wife on a ski vacation, marries her, and lives with her in extraordinarily luxurious circumstances. After a business downturn and tax problems, Brenner starts the company FlowTex, with which he hopes to achieve a major breakthrough. By chance, he comes into contact with engineer Armin Pfortner, who has developed a novel horizontal drilling system intended to revolutionize underground pipeline construction. But Pfortner lacks the capital needed to put the project into practice. Brenner sees market potential in the system, but he too is unable to get a bank loan because of his tax debts. So he stages a robbery, enabling him to use the insurance payout to settle some of his tax debts and launch the new company. He also has his tax records disappear in the robbery. Thomas Bärlach, Brenner’s former schoolmate, who has become a police detective, investigates the robbery. The circumstances seem suspicious to him: Brenner’s wife was absent at the very time of the crime, and the stolen items were heavily insured. But at first, he cannot find enough evidence to substantiate his initial suspicions. Brenner is dismayed to discover that Pfortner’s drilling system has weaknesses: unlike conventional pipeline-construction methods, it requires unobstructed underground terrain. The system cannot cope with other pipelines, foundations, rock, or even unexploded ordnance from the war. Competing with a regional construction company, Brenner struggles to secure contracts. With the help of a purchased expert report and his powers of persuasion, he manages to obtain a loan of 20 million. However, contracts still fail to materialize, and when the bank carries out an unannounced inspection, he can show them only two of the ten drills supposedly produced. Brenner promptly explains that the others are out in the field. An employee makes nameplates bearing additional serial numbers, which are attached to the two machines to give the impression that there are more. By chance, Dr. Stoschek of the state bank learns about the drilling system and approves another 20 million after being shown the drill in operation. But Brenner has cleverly staged the demonstration, which does not show a real drilling situation. The conflict between Pfortner and Brenner over the machines’ lack of practical usefulness grows increasingly intense. Brenner tells Pfortner to finally design a machine capable of handling a complicated drilling situation. But FlowTex still receives no contracts, so Brenner changes his strategy. As long as the banks trust his product and keep granting loans, that is enough for him. To Brenner, it is only a matter of time before their system is sufficiently developed for FlowTex to become the market leader and repay the loans. To fabricate contracts and sales, Brenner conducts large-scale sham transactions with Flow Color, whose managing director is his brother. Flow Color rents Brenner’s machines, which exist only on paper, and convincingly pretends that the equipment is being used in the field throughout Germany. Thanks to the Ponzi scheme, in which FlowTex’s creditors are paid with investment loans from other banks, business appears to be going very well. Detective Bärlach has still been unable to identify the perpetrator of the staged robbery and suspects insurance fraud. When he tells Brenner, Brenner uses his connections through the parliamentarian Rettinger, Stoschek as a representative of the state bank, and the public prosecutor to put a stop to Bärlach’s further investigation. After four years of development, there is a new prototype drill, which Brenner promotes to banks and politicians to great publicity. The creation of jobs opens every door for him, and even Arab investors take notice. At a meeting arranged by Stoschek with an Arab investor, prejudice against women becomes apparent: Brenner is expected to hold the discussion without his wife, but he insists that she be there. FlowTex expands, and Brenner increases the sham transactions, showing his creditors only a handful of the supposedly more than 1,300 drilling systems. The rest exist only on paper, and the investors ask only for copies of vehicle registration documents, which are easy to forge. Pfortner vehemently rejects Brenner’s idea of having some of the drilling systems made as nonfunctional fakes. Brenner is so highly regarded by banks, politicians, and investors that the façade of the highly successful company shows no cracks. Parliamentarian Rettinger suggests that Brenner build a regional airport and outlines a “great future” for the project. After only a brief moment’s thought, Brenner agrees, and Rettinger provides him with Felicia Brandt, a former employee of his parliamentary office, as a legal adviser. Brandt quickly sees through Brenner’s web of shell companies and advises him to make the transactions designed to conceal it even more complicated. Bärlach continues to pursue his initial suspicions and meticulously investigates Brenner’s business dealings. Among other things, he tracks down millions in cash payments that Brandt arranges using private aircraft through the new airport. With this evidence, he can finally persuade the public prosecutor to open an investigation into FlowTex. Brenner is meanwhile even planning to go public to raise money to service his loans. After the auditor alerts him to the ongoing investigation, Brenner temporarily flees to Argentina with his family and consults his brother about what to do next. Brandt is chosen to make a voluntary disclosure in order to send the investigation down a dead end. Brandt’s cash transactions are explained as bribe payments to unknown recipients. Brenner’s marriage is increasingly strained: his wife notices his extreme tension, becomes suspicious, and stresses that she cares about Brenner as a husband and father, not about his wealth. In the end, Thomas Bärlach manages to prove that Brenner had conducted only sham transactions. The supposed production facilities for his horizontal drills in Spain do not exist at all, and Bärlach is the first person in years to take a serious interest in them. Now the whole structure of lies around Brenner begins to collapse, and Bärlach finally gets a hearing with the public prosecutor. In the end, Brenner lets Bärlach arrest him.