The case of Karl-Erivan Haub, the German-American billionaire who disappeared six years ago during a skiing trip to Switzerland, looks like something straight out of a James Bond film. Now, an RTL journalist who investigated the case and wrote a related book, speaking to the Times, reveals that Haub may have been a Russian agent now living in Moscow, and the Cologne prosecutor’s office is opening an investigation into the matter.
Liv von Betticher investigated Haub’s disappearance on April 7, 2018, after which an operation was organized with helicopters and rescue teams on the slopes of the Matterhorn mountain in the Swiss Alps. However, no trace of Haub was found.
The Times also reports that a report by investigators hired by Haub’s Tengelmann Group concluded that it was unlikely the billionaire had died in an accident. The report also mentions a series of phone calls from his phone to Russian numbers in the month before he disappeared, particularly to a Russian woman named Veronika Ermilova. According to the list of outgoing calls from Haub’s phone, he and Ermilova spoke four times late at night on April 5, 2018. The businessman then contacted the pilot of his private jet and told him he wanted to change the destination of his journey for the next day and fly to the foot of the Matterhorn.
After landing in Switzerland on April 6, Haub contacted Ermilova again and booked a train for the next day, the day of the disappearance, according to the journalist’s records. That night the two spoke on the phone two more times for about an hour and a half.
Ermilova recently spoke to Russian journalists downplaying her relationship with Haub, which investigators reject based on the evidence they have. According to one theory of their own, Haub skied down to the Italian Alps and was “picked up” from there because he was worried that the CIA would reveal his ties to controversial Russian business circles.
Haub was declared dead in May 2021 following a power struggle between his “widow” Katrin and his brother Christian, although independent research on behalf of Tengelmann had by then gathered a wealth of information suggesting he was alive, including of CCTV footage in Moscow showing someone with a strong resemblance to Haub, Betticher claims.
The matter is being reopened by the Cologne public prosecutor’s office, which is looking for evidence and possible motives.
