The billion-dollar former Tengelmann boss Karl-Erivan Haub was lost in 2018 under mysterious circumstances.
Now his wife wants to have him pronounced dead too.
Cologne - The saga about the missing
Tengelmann
boss
Karl-Erivan Haub
takes the next surprising turn.
Contrary to earlier statements, his wife Katrin and the children want to have the missing billionaire declared dead.
A spokesman for the Cologne district court said the family had joined the ongoing applications for a declaration of death.
Tengelmann co-owner Georg Haub only withdrew his application to the Cologne district court in mid-January.
The corresponding applications from "
Christian Haub
and the
Tengelmann
Group
" remain, however.
Tengelmann: wife of the missing billionaire
The wife of the missing entrepreneur had initially sharply criticized the applications for a declaration of death.
It was "very strange that someone else
presumed
wanting to make such decisions for our family," Katrin Haub had announced last October via a spokesman.
How the decision to join the declaration of death was initially left open.
"The family made this decision for very personal reasons," said a spokesman for the families only.
Tengelmann application: Unclear motives
The background to the surprising turnaround is so far unclear.
However, since the disappearance of Karl-Erivan Haub, a family dispute about the redistribution of power in the billion-dollar trading group has been simmering.
Should the Cologne District Court grant the current applications for a declaration of death, Katrin Haub and her children would have to be prepared for an
inheritance tax
payment in the three-digit million range.
According to observers, the family could therefore possibly part with company shares.
Recently there had been several speculations that Karl-Erivan Haub could still be alive.
After that, he would only have staged his death and possibly went into hiding with a lover.
However, so far there is no reliable evidence for this.
Tengelmann: billionaire disappears on a mountain tour
The billionaire set out on a
ski tour
alone on April 7, 2018
and never returned.
The family assumes that he had a fatal accident on the Klein Matterhorn near Zermatt in Switzerland.
His younger brother Christian then took over sole management of the Tengelmann Group.
He, his brother Georg and the company had already applied in October to have his brother declared dead.
Georg Haub, however, withdrew his application in mid-January.
Before the
Cologne District Court
now decides on the admissibility of the application for a declaration of death, the Cologne public prosecutor's office still has the opportunity to submit an opinion.
If the court then considers the application to be admissible, the so-called public notice procedure begins.
The missing person and everyone who can say something about his whereabouts are asked to report.
The public announcement process can take anywhere from six weeks to a year.
After this period the death declaration can be made.
(
dpa / utz
)