As he leaves the business he set-up in 1998, Kuhn – who is at the centre of insider trading allegations relating to the solar company’s shares – accuses the media of a “witch hunt”, and claims the affair has reached a stage where “objective discussion becomes impossible”.

“The media campaign directed against me has now started to affect my family and my private life,” he says, slamming the “countless systematic and primarily anonymous criminal complaints” levelled against him.

The