The case reads like a thriller. The main characters: the highly ambitious investor in a Bundesliga soccer club. And as an opponent, the unloved and now resigned president of the association. In addition: a private Israeli intelligence company.
Key word: espionage. Lars Windhorst, who with his company Tennor 374 million euros for 66.6 percent of Hertha BSC GmbH
The case came out because of a procedure before a district court in Tel Aviv. Shibumi sued Windhorst and Tennor there in early September for around five million euros. Money that the 45-year-old entrepreneur allegedly owes to the Israeli detective agency for their services. Specifically, it is about an agreed fixed fee of one million euros, plus verbally agreed performance-related bonuses of another four million euros.
A case that should never have come to the public after an agreement was reached by all those involved. At least that’s what the court documents available to this editorial team say. In the contract contained there between Shibumi and Tennor, the strictest secrecy was agreed – on the business relationship, the agreed services as well as on the people who were involved in the “Euro 2022” operation, which is said to have forced the fall of Gegenbauer.
The documents also contain detailed information on the methods used to systematically damage Gegenbauer’s reputation and infiltrate his environment. The contact persons from Gegenbauer’s immediate environment are listed in a pictogram, including family members such as daughter Silke Gegenbauer, former senior employees from Gegenbauer’s companies. In addition, Green politician Jürgen Trittin. They were all contacted under false pretenses in order to uncover possible targets for the “main target”, as Shibumi calls Gegenbauer. If the documents are to be believed, the yield was not exactly small.
At a meeting at the end of July, Trittin is said to have compared the management style at Hertha with that of the mafia and described Gegenbauer as “wrong”. Trittin also recognized and addressed a waste of money from Hertha’s leadership. There was also a meeting with Silke Gegenbauer last autumn. She is described in the report as “shy” when making comments about her father.
In addition, extensive campaigns have been launched in the digital space. The online petition “Gegenbauer raus” is said to go back to the detective agency, as well as the blog “Sportfreax”, which openly criticized the then president. Caricatures depicted in the files show Gegenbauer as a devil and as a grim reaper in a cemetery, among other things. Fake profiles are also said to have been opened – super spreaders to rail against counter-builders. Even anti-Gegenbauer fan articles were planned. The list of Shibumi’s activities is long. 20 employees were involved in the operation, and Windhorst and his spokesman Andreas Fritzenkötter were kept up to date on the latest developments in a WhatsApp group from April this year.
But none of those involved want to know anything – not even after the incriminating court files have become known. Fritzenkötter described the allegations in “Bild” as “complete nonsense”: “We are not aware of any of this in the company.” Hertha also only briefly let it be known that Tennor had transmitted “that the story was nonsense”. However, the club still demanded a written explanation from Windhorst. This should be explained by next Monday. In addition, the “committees decided to have the processes mentioned processed and assessed by a law firm,” according to a press release.
The case of Shibumi CEO Ori Gur-Ari is more curious. “We know nothing about this alleged case. You must have made a mistake,” he is quoted as saying in the “Financial Times” when asked about the court case in Tel Aviv, in which his company appeared as a plaintiff. The court’s file is now closed, which could indicate an agreement between Shibumi and Windhorst.
Even now, without a final explanation, the process seems to be the tip of the iceberg of a long-simmering feud between Windhorst and Gegenbauer. For the financier, the long-serving president was the main culprit for the fact that his investment fizzled out with almost no effect. In March, Windhorst openly demanded Gegenbauer’s vote on Bild TV, and he categorically ruled out further cooperation: “Hertha is a toy for Gegenbauer. He doesn’t act to guarantee the success of the club, it’s about maintaining personal power. There are cliques.”
Gegenbauer was able to hold out for almost two months after this public break, on May 24 he resigned after 14 years at the Hertha leadership. In doing so, he forestalled the members being voted out and then accused Windhorst of being “responsible for a split that has seriously unsettled the club and all departments”. It was when Shibumi reported that he had successfully completed his mission, which lasted until the end of June, and was able to initiate the closure of the campaign.
The allegations hit Hertha in a phase in which the club had become quieter. Before the away game against TSG Hoffenheim (Sunday, 3.30 p.m.) things are going well in sporting terms with the last three games without defeat. There were largely no quarrels in the management floor after the new president Kay Bernstein took over. He will be in office for 100 days on Tuesday. A media round was actually convened for this occasion, to which Windhorst was also invited. But Hertha canceled the appointment on Friday.
