All the "relevant data" in the Tengelmann case was erased?
There's a surprising twist in the case of the disappearance of former Tengelmann CEO Karl-Erivan Haub. Data that could be relevant to investigations against Haub's brother appears to have been deleted.
The story of the disappearance of Tengelmann billionaire Karl-Erivan Haub is adding another chapter. Since April, the Cologne Public Prosecutor's Office has been investigating Christian Haub, the youngest brother of the missing man. The suspicion is that he misled the Cologne Regional Court in connection with the death declaration regarding clues about his brother's whereabouts. In an interview with the "Westdeutsche Allgemeine Zeitung" (WAZ), Mark Binz, Christian Haub's lawyer, said that "all relevant data" had already been deleted "at the express wish of the family of Karl-Erivan Haub" two years ago.
The case of Karl-Erivan Haub has been keeping authorities busy for years. Haub, then one of Germany's richest men, did not return from a skiing tour at the Matterhorn in April 2018. Despite intensive search operations in the glacier area, he was not found. In May 2021, the Cologne Regional Court officially declared Haub dead. However, the circumstances of his disappearance remained mysterious, and it was rumored that the missing man had contacts with the Russian secret service and oligarchs with connections to money laundering.
According to research by RTL journalist Liv von Boetticher, photos supposedly show the missing man in Moscow in 2021. The current investigations go back to a criminal complaint by Boetticher against Christian Haub for the offense of making a false statement under oath. In response, Christian Haub filed a counter-complaint against the journalist for "deliberately false accusation."
Currently, investigators are looking into whether Christian Haub and his employees knowingly concealed clues about their brother's current whereabouts. The company's own head of security is under particular scrutiny – the public prosecutor's office had ordered a search of his residence, during which at least one laptop was seized, the contents of which are now of special interest. Apparently, Christian Haub and his employees are refusing to cooperate with the authorities.
Who ordered the deletion of the data?
In an interview with WAZ, Christian Haub's lawyer said that the public prosecutor's office had informed his client and him "that the investigation could drag on for years – apparently to put pressure on the head of security to reveal the password for the seized laptop, on which, however, nothing relevant would be found." The data was deleted "to finally draw a line under the past."
The lawyer's statements raise several questions. Among them is when and by whom the head of security was instructed to delete the data. It could also be relevant whether the data regarding the research into the disappearance of Karl-Erivan Haub was stored exclusively on data carriers of the company of the head of security. And finally, the question remains why the head of security was instructed to delete the data – if, as Christian Haub and his lawyer claim, there were no indications of the continued existence of Mr. Karl-Erivan Haub.
Christian Haub and his lawyer, along with Karl-Erivan's wife Katrin Haub and her lawyer, did not respond to a corresponding press inquiry. The public prosecutor's office in Cologne stated that the investigations are ongoing. Further details, including the status of the investigation or specific investigative steps, cannot be disclosed as this could hinder or endanger the proper conduct of the ongoing investigation. The presumption of innocence for the accused is explicitly emphasized.
The family of Karl-Erivan Haub expressed their wish for the deletion of all relevant data two years ago. Despite investigations against Christian Haub, other data that could potentially be beneficial to the case seems to have disappeared as well.
