THE chairman of German steel giant Thyssen AG was detained yesterday in a fraud probe that analysts say is fallout from the kind of freewheeling deal that was typical in the heady days just after German reunification in 1990.

Like shipbuilder Bremer Vulkan, but on a much smaller scale, Thyssen may have gone too far in trying to squeeze the best deal out of its acquisition of east German metals company Metallurgiehandel GmbH, the analysts said.

Berlin prosecutors have been investigating whether Thyssen defrauded the Treuhand privatisation agency in charge of privatising East German enterprises.