An arrest warrant is said to have been issued for Friedrich-Wilhelm Göbel, managing director of the Dortmund fashion retail chain Aachener.
The entrepreneur did not show up for a court date on Thursday morning, where judges, public prosecutors and defense attorneys were waiting for him, reports the Bild local editorial team for the Ruhr area. A spokesman for the court in Haagen confirmed the arrest warrant to the newspaper.
The case is about a false affidavit in 2020. He gave false information to a bailiff about his income and gave a lower value. In addition, according to the report, he is said to have denied that he had signed over a villa in Kitzbühel for 4.7 million euros to his then wife Isabella Göbel – owner of the fashion retailer Sinn.
Göbel’s next court date is scheduled for mid-December – this time at the Dortmund District Court, according to Bild. This is said to be a violation of the GmbH Act. He is said to have confirmed in a commercial register entry in 2021 that he had not committed any economic misconduct in the past five years. However, he is said to have been convicted of delaying bankruptcy in 2017.
Göbel did not respond to Bild’s request. He confirmed the arrest warrant to the textile industry, but did not comment further to the trade magazine.
Former Galeria locations not yet opened
But not everything seems to be going well at Aachen at the moment either. There were delays in the opening of the stores at the former Galeria locations that the department store chain had secured, Aachener confirmed when asked by FashionUnited. The textile industry had previously reported on this. The first openings should take place at the beginning of October. The next opening is planned for the store in Cottbus next Thursday. The reasons for the delays include a lack of permits and late deliveries of goods.
In addition to Cottbus, the former locations of the Essen department store group that Aachener took over include Coburg, Frankfurter Zeil, Nuremberg-Langwasser and Leverkusen.
Aachen locations are already open in Bad Kreuznach, Brühl, Flensburg, Göppingen and Koblenz, where the retailer also operates a laundry area in addition to the main store. The Aachen group also includes the Küster fashion house in Mayen and a franchise store for the shoe supplier Tamaris in Bad Homburg.
Friedrich-Wilhelm Göbel founded Aachener after the former Sinn communications director left the Hagen-based fashion retailer together with managing director Torsten Altenscheidt about two years ago.