Tengelmann chief Karl-Erivan Haub vanished near the Matterhorn, and his brother bought out his widow and children

Karl-Erivan Haub, born 1960 in Tacoma, Washington, ran the Tengelmann retail group from 2000 and co-owned it with his brothers Christian and Georg. On 7 April 2018, a month after their father died, he went ski training alone above Zermatt. A camera at the Klein Matterhorn station last recorded him at about 9:10 a.m. No body or equipment was found. On 17 April Christian became sole managing director. The search ended in October 2018. In October 2020 Christian and Georg applied to have him declared dead, and Christian made a buyout offer to the widow, Katrin. The Tagesspiegel headline put the offer at 1.1 billion euros. Georg withdrew his application in January 2021. Katrin joined the application after agreeing to sell her family's third to Christian, at a reported price of at least 1.1 billion euros^†. On 14 May 2021 the Cologne local court declared Karl-Erivan dead as of midnight on 7 April 2018. In June 2021 Christian became majority owner. In May 2023 Stern and journalist Liv von Boetticher reported, as an allegation, that he may be alive in Moscow, citing 2021 surveillance images that biometric experts matched to him. In April 2024 Cologne prosecutors opened an investigation after a criminal complaint against Christian, who had sworn he had no reliable knowledge that his brother was alive. In 2026 he remains legally dead, Christian controls Tengelmann, and no charge has been reported^†.