Missing billionaire
Complaint filed against public prosecutor in Haub case
December 14, 2023, 12:34 p.m
Ex-Tengelmann boss Karl-Erivan Haub could still be alive, according to research by RTL and “Stern”. Against this background, a complaint is now being lodged with the Cologne Public Prosecutor’s Office.
Doubts about the alleged accidental death of Tengelmann boss Karl-Erivan Haub are growing. The Cologne Public Prosecutor’s Office has now received a complaint from an RTL journalist, based on which the procedure is to be reviewed as part of the supervisory authority. The core of the matter is the allegation of an allegedly false affidavit that Christian Haub, the youngest brother of the missing man and the current company director, is said to have made. This was subsequently the basis for the declaration of death and, associated with it, the billion-dollar deal within the family to settle the inheritance.
The Cologne public prosecutor’s office does not yet see any initial suspicion of a crime. The RTL journalist and a criminal lawyer filed a complaint against this decision. From the lawyer’s point of view, it is “more than just doubtful” whether the responsible senior public prosecutor had dealt with the content of a criminal complaint filed by the journalist in May and the attached appendices “at all in a legal and actual manner within the scope of the research obligation imposed on him by law”. . The fact that Christian Haub “heard rumors about a staged disappearance for the first time – out of the blue and more than two years after his brother’s disappearance” is “absolutely untrue.” A report from a management consultancy from August 2020 addressed to Christian Haub, which investigates abnormalities surrounding the PLUS Russia business, also clearly contradicts Haub’s account.
The lawyer calls for “a formal investigation” to be initiated against Christian Haub and for the existing facts to be “clarified”. From the complainant’s point of view, there was “undoubted” initial suspicion of submitting a false affidavit.
Persistent rumors
Karl-Erivan Haubwird has been around since a ski trip on the Matterhorn in 2018 went missing and was declared dead by the Cologne District Court in May 2021. However, research by RTL and “Stern” indicated that the former Tengelmann boss could still be alive. The RTL reporter had received indications that he was said to have been in Moscow at least temporarily in 2021. Rumors persist that the former Tengelmann boss may have deliberately caused his disappearance in Zermatt in order to start a new life in Russia.
In the case of the missing billionaire, the Cologne public prosecutor’s office refused to revoke the declaration of death. “There have been no concrete and verifiable indications that the missing person survived beyond the time of his declaration of death,” the Cologne authorities told “Stern”. The requirements for an application to have the declaration of death revoked are therefore not met.