Leo Kirch Sues Liberty Media, Deutsche Bank

Leo Kirch, the founder of the defunct German media empire Kirch Group, filed a lawsuit in New York against Liberty Media Corp. and Deutsche Bank charging that they were involved in a conspiracy to destroy his company.

An amended complaint, filed Wednesday in state Supreme Court in Manhattan, charges that Liberty and its chairman, John Malone, and Deutsche Bank and its chairman, Rolf Breuer, conspired to undermine a deal Kirch was negotiating to bring his privately owned company public.

According to the complaint, Breuer was in New York for the World Economic Forum on Feb. 3, 2002, when he was interviewed on television and said Kirch Group would not be able to secure further financing and could not survive.

At the time, Kirch was working with New York investment bankers on a plan to take the company public.