Dieter Frerichs, managing director of K1 group funds K1 Global and K1 Invest, took his own life on a Spanish beach on Saturday, reports said. He died as local police tried to detain him after a Madrid court ordered his extradition, according to a spokesman for the state prosecutors in the German city of Würzburg, reports said.

The man was the fourth suspect in what authorities claim was a ploy to defraud investors led by hedge fund manager Helmut Kiener, who has been detained in a Würzburg jail since last October.

The K1 hedge fund case adds to a list of alleged or actual frauds that have come to light since the start of the financial turmoil more than two years ago. To date, the most spectacular fraud has been that of the now-jailed Bernard Madoff, whose $65 billion Ponzi scheme hit a raft of institutions such as private banks.

It is reported that JP Morgan and BNP Paribas have claimed they were owned more than $82 million and $70 million respectively because of their exposure to the K1 hedge fund group, reports said.