German-American Billionaire Found Living in Moscow with His Mistress After Being Declared Dead: Report

In 2021, a German court declared the German-US billionaire Karl-Erivan Haub legally dead after he vanished during a skiing trip. He was training for a ski mountaineering race when he disappeared in Zermatt, Switzerland in April 2018.

Haub left behind his wife, two children, and his company, retail giant Tengelmann Group, which had over 75,000 employees. His brother Christian assumed control of the Tengelmann Group after his disappearance.

A major investigation led by German broadcaster RTL claims to have identified Mr Haub in Moscow living with a much younger mistress named Veronika Ermilova. The investigation suggests that Mr Haub called Ms Ermilova multiple times leading up to his disappearance, and speculates that the calls were a trigger for suspicion that the billionaire faked his death.

Ermilova, who is 44, ran an event agency in St. Petersburg and is suspected of having ties to Russia’s FSB security service. The report added that both Haub and Ermilova were in the same places at the same time on numerous occasions, raising questions about the nature of their alleged meetings and the reasons behind them.

RTL journalist Liv von Boetticher speculated that Mr Haub’s disappearance in Switzerland and alleged appearances in Russia may have come as the result of shady business dealings, but the exact method used by him to conduct his alleged escape is not known.