Niels Stolberg

Niels Stolberg

Niels Stolberg (born November 24, 1960 in Brake ) is a German entrepreneur . He was one of the two founders of Beluga Shipping GmbH and managing partner until March 3, 2011. On March 15, 2018, he was sentenced to three and a half years in prison for breach of trust, balance sheet falsification and credit fraud. An appeal was filed against the judgment. The appeal was rejected by the Federal Court of Justice on December 18, 2019, and the judgment is therefore final.

Life

Stolberg grew up in Brunsbüttel at the mouth of the Elbe. The sailor studied nautical science at the Oldenburg University of Applied Sciences , seafaring department in Elsfleth, and in 1985 he obtained his master's license (AG) and a degree in industrial engineering (FH) for maritime transport. With the company, Beluga Shipping GmbH , he was a member of the Association of German Shipowners (VDR). From November 27, 2008 to March 2, 2011, he was a member of the supervisory board of Bundesliga soccer club Werder Bremen . Stolberg is married to Simone Stolberg for the second time and has three daughters from the first marriage.

Beluga

In 1995 Stolberg founded Beluga Shipping GmbH as the nucleus of the Beluga Group , after several years of activity in the Bremen shipping company Bruno Bischoff , where he built up the chartering department . According to a study by the Institute for Shipping Economics and Logistics (ISL), he built the group of companies into the world market leader in the niche market of project and heavy lift shipping.

On March 3, 2011, against the background of financial problems in his group of companies and the associated threat of complete takeover of the Beluga Group by the US financial investor Oaktree Capital Management , he resigned as managing director. On March 9, 2011, the Bremen public prosecutor's office announced that they had initiated investigations into serious fraud against him and other senior executives. A short time later, some of the Beluga Group's subsidiaries filed for bankruptcy. There has also been an investigation by the public prosecutor into allegations of embezzlement in connection with donations to the Beluga School for Life project in Thailand . Stolberg even applied for in April 2011 personal bankruptcy ; the reason he gave claims of over 130 million euros on the part of the investor Oaktree.

In the following years there were further investigations by the public prosecutor and in September 2014 the indictment came. Niels Stolberg and three employees of the company were accused of fraud, breach of trust and credit fraud. The trial began on January 20, 2016 at the Bremen Regional Court ; 55 days of negotiations were scheduled. In the further course there were further allegations of fraud. In particular, balance sheets were forged. A few days after the start of the trial, Stolberg made a partial confession. On March 15, 2018, he was sentenced to three years and six months in prison for breach of trust and credit fraud. An appeal was filed against the judgment. The appeal was rejected by the Federal Court of Justice on December 18, 2019, and the judgment is therefore final.

engagement

Stolberg was committed to the next generation of nautical talent in Germany and founded the Beluga Sea Academy for this purpose , where more than a hundred seafarers received practical training on six of the shipping company's own training vessels. In 2008, his company invested just under four million euros in promoting young talent.

In his private life, Stolberg stayed on the North Sea island of Spiekeroog . There he built the Spiekeroog gallery and artist house , a place for art and culture, artists and creative people. As part of the Beluga bankruptcy, the Künstlerhaus ceased operations on June 1, 2011. Stolberg was also the ambassador of the Martins-Club Bremen and the children's hospice Jona of the Friedehorst Foundation in Bremen .

He was also the initiator of the Beluga School for Life (now the Hanseatic School for Life ) in Thailand , in which around 240 people have found a new home and an education opportunity. The focus of the project was on an innovative educational concept that had already been recognized by the then Federal Government and the UN Special Representative of the UN Secretary General for Sport in the Service of Peace and Development Willi Lemke . The public prosecutor's office in Bremen later investigated suspected misappropriation of donations. The public prosecutor's office did not consider an exonerating opinion to be valid and stated in October 2011 that the suspicion had been confirmed.

Awards

• Bremen Entrepreneur of the Year 2006 ( ASU / BJU)
• Entrepreneur of the year 2006 in the category services in Germany ( Ernst & Young )
• In the entrepreneurial competition initiated by Das Örtliche , Stolberg was voted the nation's encourager in 2008.

literature

• Hartmut Roder : Bremen location . Rasch Druckerei und Verlag, Bramsche 2009, ISBN 978-3-89946-140-4 , pp. 31-52.
• Markus Garn: Innovation driver in Germany . Boschen Offsetdruck, 2007, ISBN 978-3-89981-781-2 , pp. 16/17.
• Christine Backhaus u. a .: Metropolitan region Bremen-Oldenburg in the northwest . Verlag Kommunikation & Wirtschaft, Oldenburg 2008, ISBN 978-3-88363-293-3 , pp. 288/289.
• Hanne Wolf-Kluthausen (Ed.): Yearbook Logistics 2008 . free advice, Korschenbroich 2008, pp. 243–245.
• Lydia Niehoff : Shipping with three "f" . Bremer Rhederverein, Bremen 2009, ISBN 978-3-925729-59-1 , p. 164/165.
• Klaus Wolschner: The rapid fall of a climber . In: Waterkant , Heft 11, pp. 11/12, volume 26, Förderkreis Waterkant eV, Emsdetten 2011, ISSN  1611-1583

Web links

• Kristian Klooss: Heavily lifted , Manager Magazin, April 15, 2011
• Lord of the Ships - the ARD radio feature

Individual evidence

1. ↑ Stolberg is out at Bremer Beluga-Reederei ( Memento from September 28, 2011 in the Internet Archive ) Radio Bremen, March 4, 2011.
2. ↑ ^{a b} Christian Schwalb and Daniel Hoffmann: Niels Stolberg sentenced to prison. buten un within, March 15, 2018, accessed on March 15, 2018 . 
3. ↑ Eckhard Stengel: Ex-Beluga boss Niels Stolberg has to go to prison. In: Frankfurter Rundschau , March 15, 2018, accessed on March 17, 2018.
4. ↑ Jürgen Hinrichs: Stolberg hires star lawyer . ( Online [accessed November 27, 2018]).
5. ↑ https://www.weser-kurier.de/bremen/bremen-wirtschaft_artikel,-niels-stolberg-muss-ins-gefaengnis-_arid,1883850.html
6. ↑ Official Beluga Group page  ( page no longer available , search in web archives )  Info: The link was automatically marked as defective. Please check the link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. , accessed September 27, 2010  
7. ↑ Hartmut Roder: Bremen location . Rasch printing and publishing house 2009, p. 50
8. ↑ Versatile and playful - a portrait of Niels Stolberg , Handelsblatt, January 11, 2007, accessed on September 27, 2010.
9. ↑ Premiere on the Polar Sea website of Wirtschaftswoche magazine, accessed on September 27, 2010
10. ↑ Lydia Niehoff: Shipping with three "f" , p. 164, Bremer Rhederverein , 2009
11. ↑ Suspected fraud: Investigations against Beluga founders ( memento from March 9, 2011 in the Internet Archive ), NDR, March 9, 2011.
12. ↑ Beluga shipping company in crisis - insolvency for charter business registered ( memento from March 19, 2011 in the Internet Archive ), Radio Bremen, March 16, 2011.
13. ^ Stolberg donations: Public prosecutor's office investigates breach of trust ( memento of October 10, 2011 in the Internet Archive ), Radio Bremen, October 5, 2011.
14. ^ Stolberg before personal bankruptcy , Kreiszeitung, April 5, 2011.
15. ^ Petra Sigge: Insolvency holds Stolberg's assets together , Weser-Kurier, April 6, 2011.
16. ↑ Jürgen Hinrichs: The deep fall of Niels Stolberg , Weser-Kurier, November 6, 2015.
17. ↑ Jürgen Hinrichs: Court opens proceedings against Stolberg , Weser-Kurier, November 5, 2015.
18. ↑ I am glad that it is finally starting , Nordwest-Zeitung, January 19, 2016, p. 11.
19. ↑ Burkhard Ilschner, Christoph Spehr: What lessons from the “Beluga” crash are necessary? Former shipowner and hyped model entrepreneur Niels Stolberg in court . In: Waterkant , issue 1/16, March 2016, pp. 7-10, Förderkreis Waterkant eV, ISSN  1611-1583
20. ↑ "Beluga was like a UFO in Bremen" . In: Waterkant , issue 1/16, March 2016, pp. 11-14, Förderkreis Waterkant eV, ISSN  1611-1583
21. ↑ Martin Schrüfer: Niels Stolberg accused of credit fraud , LT manager, February 1, 2013.
22. ↑ Jürgen Westerhoff: Reederei Beluga: Trial against Stolberg is being expanded , Neue Osnabrücker Zeitung, November 17, 2016.
23. ^ Jürgen Hinrichs: Indictment against Stolberg's tax advisor , Weser-Kurier, July 14, 2017.
24. ^ Indictment against ex-shipowner Niels Stolberg ( Memento from December 15, 2013 in the Internet Archive ), NDR, December 15, 2013.
25. ↑ Ex-shipowner Stolberg admits errors in court , Wirtschaftswoche, January 27, 2016.
26. ↑ https://www.weser-kurier.de/bremen/bremen-wirtschaft_artikel,-niels-stolberg-muss-ins-gefaengnis-_arid,1883850.html
27. ↑ - ( Memento of the original from March 27, 2009 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. Official Sea Academy page. Retrieved September 27, 2010 
28. ↑ - ( Memento of the original from March 27, 2009 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. Official Sea Academy page. Retrieved September 27, 2010 
29. ↑ "Inside I cook" Tagesspiegel, March 10, 2008, accessed on September 27, 2010.
30. ↑ Uli Schulte Döinghaus: The Ambitious: Niels Stolberg , Wirtschaftswoche, March 31, 2008, accessed on September 28, 2010.
31. ↑ [1]  ( Page no longer available , search in web archives )  Info: The link was automatically marked as defective. Please check the link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. Künstlerhaus Spiekeroog page, accessed on September 28, 2010  
32. ↑ - ( Memento of the original from November 10, 2011 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. Press release of the Künstlerhaus from June 3, 2011 
33. ↑ [2]  ( Page no longer available , search in web archives )  Info: The link was automatically marked as defective. Please check the link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. Schaffermahlzeit 2008, accessed September 28, 2010  
34. ^ [3] Wirtschaftswoche magazine, accessed on September 28, 2010
35. ↑ Beluga School for Life ( Memento from March 18, 2011 in the Internet Archive )
36. ↑ Twelve “Selected Places” 2007 come from Bremen and Bremerhaven , Senate Press Office Bremen, December 6, 2006, accessed on September 28, 2010.
37. ↑ Olaf Reichert: Steilpass auf the mighty people of this world , Nordwest-Zeitung, November 17, 2008, accessed on March 16, 2018.
38. ↑ Investigations against Niels Stolberg and other persons in charge of the company "Beluga" are ongoing , press release No. 5-2011, Bremen public prosecutor's office, July 13, 2011 (PDF; 17 kB).
39. ↑ Former Beluga boss Stolberg is said to have embezzled donations ( memento of the original from October 6, 2011 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was automatically inserted and not yet checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. NWZ Online, accessed October 5, 2011 
40. ↑ [4] BJU Annual Report 2006, page 26, accessed on September 28, 2010
41. ↑ - ( Memento of the original from April 24, 2010 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. Official Ernst & Young website, accessed September 28, 2010 
42. ↑ Mutmacher der Nation - The pictures of the award ceremony ( Memento from April 2, 2013 in the web archive archive.today ), impulse, December 4, 2008.