StopECG

One of the pivotal companies in the former Ludenbach empire, Maiwolf Management AG is finished. In June 2009 the company was one of several raided by the Swiss police, now it has been wound up.

Way back in the 90s Ludenbach established 2 companies to oversee the empire of sham guides and collection companies, these were Maiwolf Holding (in St. Gallen) and Maiwolf Management (in Zug), between them these companies directly controlled the guides Construct Data Verlag, European City Guide and Novachannel AG as well as Debt collector Ovag AG.

In his article of September 2005 where Christian Bütikofer finally named Lüdenbach as the man behind the scams he pointed out that the name Maiwolf was almost certainly a play on Ludenbach's given name of Meinolf.

The names on the company board at the time of Liquidation, Rudolf Keller and Dr. Heinz Mäusli are a throwback to the very early days of the industry, Mäusli had already achieved some notoriety as a lawyer, defending far right extremists and racists and is well known in his native Switzerland; both these men must now be in their twilight years and are unlikely to play any further role.

I encourage you to read Christian's articles to gather a greater understanding of the huge complexity of the international network of companies set up to run these scams which enabled operators to jump jurisdictions whenever the risks became to high. While the names of the guides and the straw men who front them may be different in 2010 the modus operandi remains the same and in the shadows there are still many companies and individuals who operate in secret, ensuring that the scams can cross borders and be put beyond the reach of national law enforcers.

Labels: Christian Bütikofer, Liquidation, Maiwolf Holding, Maiwolf Management, Meinolf Lüdenbach