BERLIN, July 9 (Xinhua) -- A court in the western German city of Frankfurt on Thursday sentenced entrepreneur Alexander Falk to four years and six months in prison for inciting attackers to shoot and seriously injure a lawyer preparing a case against him in 2010, news agency dpa reported.

Prosecutors told the court that Falk had passed on instructions to attack the lawyer, who had been preparing a multimillion-dollar lawsuit involving alleged fraud in the sale of one of his companies, the report said.

The lawyer was seriously injured after being shot in the thigh in February 2010. The 50-year-old Falk repeatedly denied allegations he had ordered the attack, but was subsequently caught on tape gloating about it, dpa reported.

The defense pushed for an acquittal on the basis that the recording had been made in secret and had been cut and therefore manipulated, arguments which failed to convince the judge, according to dpa.

Falk had sold the city map publishing company he inherited from his father in 1996 and subsequently invested the money in online companies and made it to the list of the 100 richest Germans at the time.

In 2008, Falk had already been sentenced to four years in prison for attempted fraud as well as aiding and abetting the falsification of accounts. Enditem

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