The “mistress” at the center of the story about the German supermarket billionaire who disappeared on the Matterhorn has broken her silence.
Reports have suggested that Karl-Erivan Haub faked his death six years ago while hiking alone on the iconic Swiss peak and then traveled incognito to Moscow to be with his secret Russian lover.
Authorities launched a six-day search in which five helicopters and teams of alpine rescuers scoured the area after he disappeared in April 2018, but his body was never found.
When he disappeared, he was 58 years old and left behind a wife, two children and a company of some 75,000 employees as the former CEO and co-owner of the German supermarket and retail giant Tengelmann Group.
He was pronounced dead, but reports suggest he is “living with his lover” Veronika Ermilova, 44, in Moscow.
Haub is alleged to have dialed the phone of mysterious Russian woman Veronika Ermilova, suspected of being a Russian agent, 13 times in the three days before her disappearance.
Ermilova ran a “discreet” events agency in St. Petersburg with hobbies such as hiking, climbing and ski touring.
German-American tycoon Karl-Erivan Haub, then 58, was training for a ski mountaineering race when he disappeared in April 2018.
The billionaire businessman was seen riding up the mountain in a lift alone one morning – something his coach said was strange for a man who was normally very safety-conscious and well-prepared – and never returned to his hotel.
Veronika Ermilova, 44 years old, is twenty years younger than Haub
An investigation found that Ermilova ran a “discreet” events agency that organized skiing, hiking and climbing tours for outdoor lovers. She is now listed on LinkedIn as the director of marketing for Russian Event, which is styled as a travel experience company.
Haub was reported to have made a succession of telephone calls to the mysterious Ermilova shortly before they met.
And the pair are believed to have held secret meetings at various locations in the years before their disappearance.
There were also claims of possible shady dealings involving the couple, potentially linked to the Russian state.
One of Haub’s Russian business partners included the notorious self-confessed fraudster Sergey Grishin, known as the “Scarface Oligarch.”
Grishin made headlines in the UK and US after selling his $14.7 million home in Montecito, California to none other than Prince Harry and Meghan Markle in 2020.
Now, following an investigation by the German media RTL, pro-Kremlin media in Russia have said that Ermilova admits that she knew the German tycoon and that they had a business relationship.
But she says she hasn’t heard from him since she hiked the Matterhorn.
“No, I’m married, no one ran to me,” she said, according to REN TV.
“I only had a working relationship with him,” he said, according to the Zvezda media.
“I don’t live with a German billionaire in Moscow, this is false.”
Russian state media RT quoted Ermilova as saying: “There is no billionaire in my circle, I am married and have a child.”
She stated: ‘The company owned by this person [Haub]They were our clients.
‘In 2018 we learned that he disappeared in the mountains. And someone in Germany tries to say that he was found in Moscow…
‘This has not been confirmed at all. He was officially declared dead in Germany.
He also denied receiving 13 calls from Haub before his disappearance.
Haub called Ermilova 13 times before her disappearance, raising suspicions that she was planning to fake her death with help from Moscow.
Veronika Ermilova pictured at the Pacman bar, St. Petersburg, in 2016
Haub was officially declared dead in 2021 with a net worth of £5.2 billion, even though his body was missing.
German-American tycoon Karl-Erivan Haub was training for a ski mountaineering race when he disappeared in April 2018 in Zermatt, Switzerland.
Ermilova said Haub was a client of the St. Petersburg events agency where she worked.
At first there were no further comments from him.
An investigation found that Ermilova ran a “discreet” events agency that organized skiing, hiking and climbing tours for outdoor lovers.
She is now listed on LinkedIn as the director of marketing for Russian Event, which is styled as a travel experience company.
However, there were also claims linking Ermilova to the FSB security agency in Russia.
Investigators suggested that he “could work for the Russian internal secret service FSB,” although they stressed that this “cannot be proven.”
“What can be demonstrated is that she is always in the same place and at the same time as Karl-Erivan Haub,” it was reported.
Today’s denials by Ermilova can only deepen suspicions about Haub.
REN TV is an Uber loyalist outlet run by a company headed by Putin’s mistress Alina Kabaeva, 40.
Zvezda is the official television channel of the Russian Ministry of Defense and MK is a pro-Kremlin publication.