The reporter claimed in Stern magazine that Christian had initiated an internal Tengelmann Group investigation after his brother’s disappearance, and later hired several private investigative companies, some based in Russia. The journalist also stated that she had personally seen photos of the businessman taken in Moscow in February 2021 by some of the private investigators hired by his brother.

According to the reporter, the two were also frequently “in the same places at the same time” over a number of years. In 2008, they were both in Moscow and Sochi within a few days. In 2009, they traveled from Moscow to St. Petersburg on the same train. They also made simultaneous short trips to the same destinations in 2010, 2011, 2014, 2015, and 2017, von Boetticher said.

The journalist also claimed that the German billionaire had other connections in Russia, including banker Andrey Suzdaltsev and Russian-American businessman Sergey Grishin. The latter was purported to have been “robbing” the Russian banking system in the 1990s.

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Von Boetticher told Die Welt last year that Haub “could have worked as a kind of agent of influence for Russia in Germany,” adding that she also was in the FSB’s crosshairs because of her investigation.

In 2023, RTL journalists filed a complaint with the Cologne Prosecutor’s Office, accusing Haub’s brother Christian of making false statements before the court. German law enforcement officials initially refused to open an investigation but changed their minds after the reporters approached the Prosecutor General’s Office, which ordered that a probe be launched.

Russian officials have not commented on the situation. Veronika Ermilova, who was contacted by Russian media, called the RTL report an “unverified fake.” She said she was “not living with a billionaire” and denied having connections to any security services.

Ermilova said she had previously worked for a St. Petersburg-based event agency that had dealings with Haub. A lawyer for Christian Haub told journalists that there was “no truth” in the accusations against his client, adding that they were based on “incorrect information.”