Schwend amassed a fortune from Operation Bernhard. He was captured by American forces in June 1945, who tried to use him to assist in setting up a counterintelligence network in Germany, the Gehlen Organization. After he was caught trying to defraud the network, he fled to Peru. Although he periodically acted as an informant for Peruvian intelligence, he was arrested for currency smuggling and selling state secrets. After a two-year prison sentence, he was deported to West Germany where he was tried for a wartime murder in 1979; he was given a suspended sentence for manslaughter.