Rolf Erb

Eugensberg Castle, residence of Rolf Erb

Rolf Peter Erb (born September 2, 1951 in Winterthur ; entitled to live there ; † April 8, 2017 in Salenstein ) was a Swiss entrepreneur and convicted fraudster .

Life

In the 1920s, Erb's grandfather Hugo Erb senior (1894–1952) founded a car repair shop in Winterthur Töss . Rolf Erb grew up in Winterthur with his brothers Heinz and Christian . Heinz, who was intended to be the company's successor, died at the age of twenty-three in a car accident in Germany. By 2003, Rolf Erb, together with his brother Christian, who had been paralyzed since 1994, owned over eighty companies around the world with 5,000 employees and a turnover of 4.5 billion Swiss francs.

When Hugo Erb junior (* 1918), Rolf Erb's father, died of cancer in 2003 at the age of 85, parts of the Erb group had to file for bankruptcy. In the end she owned a large share of the Cologne-based CBB Holding AG, which specializes in Eastern real estate. Erb acquired some of these originally from the Zurich-based financial company EBC through a letter of comfort to KPMG . With a claim amounting to CHF 2.4 billion, the Erb-collapse is the second largest bankruptcy in Switzerland after the bankruptcy of Swissair in 2002. The reproach by the restructuring engineer Hans Ziegler that the Erb brothers embezzled CHF 400 million was made by the Zurich public prosecutor's office shelved as a charge.

Erb lived in Eugensberg Castle in the canton of Thurgau , which he passed on to his then ten-month-old twins after the financial decline of the Erb group and after the death of his father. Rolf Erb was found dead by his partner on April 8, 2017 at his home. He died of heart disease.

Judicial case

On March 22, 2012, Erb was sentenced to an unconditional imprisonment of eight years by the District Court of Winterthur for commercial fraud , multiple forgery and multiple damage to creditors through asset reduction. Erb and the public prosecutor's office announced an appeal , and on January 15, 2014, the Zurich Higher Court reduced the sentence by one year to seven years. The court decided to forcibly auction his properties such as the Eugensberg Castle in Salenstein in Thurgau and the villa on Wolfensbergstrasse in Wülflingen . The "Schlosshof Immobilien AG", which owns the Winterthur Töss center , flowed into the bankruptcy estate , as did Erbs' classic car collection . Erb then announced that the judgment would be passed on to the federal court . On September 16, 2015, the Federal Supreme Court rejected the appeal and upheld the judgment of the Zurich Higher Court.

The start of imprisonment was repeatedly delayed by Erb with health certificates and legal remedies. The Zurich Prison Office set the commencement of the sentence for November 2016, the Zurich Administrative Court based the decision in February 2017 and set the date to April 5, 2017, and after another appeal, this decision was confirmed by the Federal Supreme Court in March 2017.

Documentation

• Hansjürg Zumstein : The collapse. How the Erb family made and lost billions. DOK , Swiss Television , January 19, 2012 (52 minutes).

Publications

• Rolf Erb: Hugo Erb 1918-2003. Biography about the life of the Swiss entrepreneur pioneer, self-published, o.O. 2011, ISBN 978-3-03-300934-9 (published on lulu.com ).
• Rudolf Marti, Rolf Erb (ed.): Eugensberg - a castle and 2500 years of history. Huber, Frauenfeld 1997, ISBN 3-7193-1147-3 .

literature

• Thomas Buomberger: The inheritance bankruptcy: How the owner family ruined a flourishing company with speculation. Orell Füssli, Zurich 2005, ISBN 3-280-06054-0 .

Web links

• Markus Bürgi: Erb (ZH). In: Historical Lexicon of Switzerland .
• Erb Garagen Winterthur in the Winterthur Glossary.

Individual evidence

1. ↑ ^{a b} Heinz Bächinger: Erb Garagen Winterthur in the Winterthur Glossary. Accessed on March 24, 2012. According to the information given there, the information comes from the book by Thomas Buomberger.
2. ↑ Interview with Rolf Erb: "2000 is our year". In: Balance . March 1, 2000.
3. ↑ Schlosshof Immobilien AG  ( 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. , Internet excerpt, Commercial Register of the Canton of Zurich, accessed on March 24, 2012.  
4. ^ Entrepreneur Rolf Erb found dead. In: Neue Zürcher Zeitung , April 10, 2017.
5. ^ The stupidest car dealers in Switzerland. View from January 26, 2012, accessed on March 23, 2012.
6. ↑ Billion bankrupt and lord of the castle in court. In: Tages-Anzeiger from January 18, 2012, accessed on March 23, 2012.
7. ↑ «He donated considerable sums and the Eugensberg Castle above the Untersee to his partner and their twin sons. According to the indictment, this property is valued at CHF 27 million. The boys were only ten months old when they became lords of the castle. " Millions of salaries despite the threat of bankruptcy. NZZ Online , May 2, 2011.
8. ^ Johanna Wedl: Erb's bankruptcy case - Rolf Erb succumbed to heart disease. In: Neue Zürcher Zeitung , April 22, 2017.
9. ↑ "Exemplary": Rolf Erb is supposed to be behind bars for 8 years. In: Schweizer Fernsehen from March 22, 2012.
10. ^ Pia Wertheimer: Rolf Erb sentenced to eight years imprisonment. In: Tages-Anzeiger / Newsnet of March 23, 2012.
11. ↑ Pia Wertheimer: Rolf Erb does not give up. In: Tages-Anzeiger .ch / Newsnet from January 15, 2014.
12. ↑ Thomas Hasler: Rolf Erb has to go to prison for seven years. In: Tages-Anzeiger .ch / Newsnet from September 16, 2015.
13. ↑ Katharina Fontana: Rolf Erb has to go to prison. Federal Supreme Court rejects appeal. Report, in: Neue Zürcher Zeitung. April 1, 2017, p. 39.
14. ↑ judgment 6B_336 / 2017