A dramatic dispute is raging in the family of the billionaire owners of Aldi Nord.
The grandson of the founder Theo Albrecht takes his mother and sisters to court.
Eating - getting rich does not automatically make you happy. The best example is the Albrechts family tribe, who control the discounter Aldi Nord and whose assets are estimated at around 20 billion euros. Nicolay Albrecht, 31-year-old grandson of Aldi-Nord founder and boss Theo Albrecht, is
in a heated argument with his four sisters and mother Babette
, according to information from
Business Insider
and
Welt am Sonntag
.
It's about the money.
The focus is on one of the three foundations, which not only contain the assets of Aldi Nord, but whose board members also have to approve important company decisions.
Before his death in 2012, Berthold Albrecht, the father of the five siblings, stipulated in his will that his children would only receive annual donations of 250,000 euros from the Jakobus Foundation after they reached the age of 32.
However, so-called distributions for basic security are an exception.
Family drama at Aldi Nord: heirs can distribute large sums of money
Berthold's descendants apparently take advantage of this exception to repeatedly distribute parts of Aldi-Nord's assets.
Just one year after his death, Nicolay, his sisters and mother Babette received a total of 25 million euros net.
The Jakobus Foundation paid the taxes.
Over the years, the payments to the family and the tax office added up to a three-digit million amount.
+
Babette Albrecht, mother of Nicolay Albrecht, also benefits from the distributions from the Jakobus Foundation
© apress / imago
This brought the family into conflict with Berthold's brother Theo Albrecht junior, who directs the fortunes of Aldi Nord after his death.
The 71-year-old sees his brother's legacy and family values betrayed.
Because the two brothers did not want family members to be able to make uncontrolled use of the foundation's assets.
A corresponding passage in the will also served for this purpose.
His descendants tried to have this declared invalid, but ultimately failed in court.
Family drama at Aldi Nord: Nicolay is declared incapable of doing business
The family quarrel affects Nicolay very much, he often gets into quarrels with his mother and sisters.
After a crash in a hotel on Tegernsee in autumn 2019, he was admitted to the closed department of a psychiatric hospital in Bavaria by court order.
An appraiser found that Nicolay is no longer legally competent, two of his sisters receive a health care proxy from a court.
This means that the sisters determine his life and also regulate his finances.
According to
Business Insider
, the Aldi heir could now neither pay his bills himself nor did he have full access to his accounts.
He was allowed to withdraw a maximum of 100 euros a day from the bank.
Family drama at Aldi Nord: lawyers prepare lawsuit against the sisters
The barrel overflowed when Nicolay received nothing from a distribution from the Jakobus Foundation at the end of 2019.
The mother and sisters had 50 million euros paid out without taking him into account.
A year and a half ago, this apparently encouraged him to take legal action against the health care proxy.
He hired lawyers who hired two experts.
This attested the legal capacity of the Aldi heir.
Now he is revoking the power of attorney and care for his sisters, which is not recognized by them and their lawyer.
In addition, Nicolay's lawyers are preparing a lawsuit against the sisters and their lawyer.
The main thing is to have Nicolay declared legally competent again, so that he can again determine his own life.
The reason why the family strongly opposes declaring Nicolay legally competent again could also be due to the fact that he accuses his sisters and their lawyer of infidelity.
According to his account, they illegally poured millions out of the Jakobus Foundation.
The accused deny the allegations.
Should Nicolay continue to be classified as incapacitated, the situation in the proceedings might be defused for his family.
