NYC Architect, 2 Others Charged With Kidnapping

A New York City architect and two other men are charged with kidnapping, robbery and threatening to kill their landlord's agent because of money problems in trying to open a restaurant.
    
Prosecutors said Friday that 70-year-old architect Ekkehart Schwarz and 35-year-old roommate Vassileios Giamagas threatened to kill the agent when he tried to collect $265,000 they owed in rent.
    
Prosecutors say the two also forced the agent to give Schwarz a $25,000 check.
    
Prosecutors say Giamagas hired a third defendant -- 6-foot-5-inch, 350-pound Kakhaber Gogoladze to intimidate the victim.
    
Giamagas' and Gogoladze's lawyers say the case is really a landlord-tenant dispute. Schwarz' lawyer did not immediately return a telephone call.