Russian ‘mistress’, 44, breaks her silence over claims she is living in Moscow with 64-year-old US-German billionaire who vanished during hike on the Matterhorn

The ‘mistress’ at the centre of the story about the German supermarket billionaire who vanished on the Matterhorn has broken her silence.

Reports have suggested Karl-Erivan Haub faked his death six years ago while hiking alone on the iconic Swiss peak, then went incognito to Moscow to be with his secret Russian mistress.

Authorities launched a six-day search which saw five helicopters and teams of alpine rescuers canvas the area following his disappearance in April 2018, but his body was never found.

Aged 58 when he disappeared, he left behind a wife, two children and a company of some 75,000 employees as former managing director and part owner of German supermarket and retail giant Tengelmann Group.

He was declared dead but reports have suggested he is ‘living with his mistress’ Veronika Ermilova, 44, in Moscow.

Haub is alleged to have dialled the phone of mysterious Russian woman Veronika Ermilova – suspected of being a Russian agent – 13 times in the three days before he vanished

Ermilova ran an ‘inconspicuous’ event agency in St Petersburg with hobbies like 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 heading up the mountain in a lift one morning alone – something his trainer said was strange for a man who was typically very safety conscious and well-prepared – and never returned to his hotel

Veronika Ermilova, 44, is twenty years Haub’s junior

An investigation found that Ermilova ran an ‘inconspicuous’ event agency which organised skiing, hiking and climbing excursions for outdoor enthusiasts. She is now listed on LinkedIn as a Marketing Director at Russian Event, which is styled as a travel experience company

Haub was reported to have made a succession of phone calls to the mysterious Ermilova shortly before he met.

And the pair are believed to have held secret meetings at various locations in the years before he vanished.

There were also claims of possible shady business deals involving the pair, potentially linked to the Russian state.

One of Haub’s Russian business partners included notorious self-confessed fraudster Sergey Grishin – known as the ‘Scarface Oligarch’.

Grishin made headlines in the UK and US after being 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 German outlet RTL, the pro-Kremlin media in Russia has said Ermilova admits she knew the German tycoon and that they had a business relationship.

But she says she has heard nothing from him since he went hiking on 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,’ she said, according to Zvezda media.

‘I don’t live with a German billionaire in Moscow – this is fake.’

Russian state media RT quoted Ermilova as saying: ‘There is no billionaire in my circle, I am married, I have a child.’

She claimed: ‘The company owned by this person [Haub], they were our clients.

‘We learned in 2018 that he disappeared in the mountains. And someone in Germany is trying to say that he was found in Moscow…

‘This has not been confirmed at all. He was officially declared dead in Germany.’

She also denied that she received 13 calls from Haub before his disappearance.

Haub called Ermilova 13 times before his disappearance, leading to suspicions he was plotting to fake his death with help from Moscow

Veronika Ermilova is pictured at Pacman bar, St Petersburg, back in 2016

Haub was officially declared dead in 2021 with a net wealth 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 that Haub was a client of the St. Petersburg events agency where she worked.

Ermilova later denied she was an FSB agent or a spy, as she insisted she had no more than a working relationship with Karl-Erivan Haub.

‘I don’t live with a billionaire, it’s all some unverified fake,’ she said.

‘I worked in a company, his company was our client. So we knew each other through business relations. I worked in an events agency in St. Petersburg.

‘He came here quite often, they also had a big business here, that is, we provided various services that were ordered from us.

‘In 2018, when it happened, we learned that he died in the mountains.

‘And now I read that this is some incomprehensible investigation of some channel, which decided that he ran away to me in Moscow,’ she said.

‘I’m married, nobody ran away to me. I’m not an FSB agent, I’m not a spy.’

An investigation found that Ermilova ran an ‘inconspicuous’ event agency which organised skiing, hiking and climbing excursions for outdoor enthusiasts.

She is now listed on LinkedIn as a Marketing Director at Russian Event, which is styled as a travel experience company.

Yet there were also claims linking Ermilova to the FSB security agency in Russia.

Investigators suggested that she ‘may work for the Russian domestic secret service FSB’, although stressed this ‘cannot be proven’.

‘What can be proven, however, is that she is always in the same places at the same time as Karl-Erivan Haub,’ it was reported.

Today’s denials from Ermilova may only deepen the suspicions regarding Haub.

REN TV is a Uber-loyalist outlet run by a company headed by Putin’s mistress Alina Kabaeva, 40.

Zvezda is the official TV channel of the Russian Ministry of Defence, and MK is a pro-Kremlin publication.