Six years after his mysterious disappearance in Switzerland, a German billionaire, Karl-Erivan Haub, has been reportedly found living with a Russian mistress in Moscow.
The then 58-year-old German-American retail tycoon was training for a ski mountaineering race when he disappeared in April 2018 in Zermatt, Switzerland.
DailyMail reports that the billionaire businessman was last seen heading up the mountain in a lift one morning alone – something his trainer said was strange for a man who was typically very safety conscious and well-prepared – and never returned to his hotel.
Authorities launched a six-day search which saw five helicopters and teams of alpine rescuers canvas the area, but his body was never found.
Haub – the former managing director and part owner of German supermarket and retail giant Tengelmann Group – was declared d£ad by a Cologne court three years later, leaving behind a wife, two children and a company of some 75,000 employees.
His younger brother Christian swore in a courtroom in 2021 there was no indication the Alpinist, whose net worth was estimated at £5.2 billion, remained alive.
However, a major investigation led by German broadcaster RTL now claims to have identified Haub in Moscow – and believes the tycoon is there with a much younger mistress named Veronika Ermilova.
Retail mogul Haub, who would now be aged 64, is alleged to have called the said mistress’ phone 13 times in the three days before he vanished in 2018, according to the probe by RTL and media outlet Stern.
The calls were substantial – one lasting more than an hour – leading to suspicions he was plotting to fake his d£ath with help from Moscow and Ermilova, 44.
“His disappearance came at a time when Tengelmann was doing pretty badly… and was expanding into Russia with the Obi DIY chain, for example.
I am sure it was not a skiing accident, but a staged escape,” the journalist said.
