Three weeks after allegations about protective mask shops became known, the influencer Fynn Kliemann distanced himself from a textile company involved. The musician and entrepreneur said on Instagram that he wanted to break ties with the Global Tactics group of companies. He is giving back his shares in two group companies founded in 2021. Kliemann and the textile company were heavily criticized in early May by a TV report by the satirist Jan Böhmermann on ZDF.
Kliemann has an online fashion shop (“Oderso”), through which he offers clothing produced in Europe. Global Tactics is a textile company from North Rhine-Westphalia with which he maintained business relations.
The mask case is very small. At the heart of the TV report was the question of whether the country of production was deliberately concealed in certain transactions by Global Tactics with a wholesaler in 2020 – masks came from Asia instead of Europe. The allegations in the TV report are also about defective masks that were donated to refugees. After the broadcast, the listed retailer, Kliemann and the textile company spoke independently of each other and also announced that they would each conduct further internal investigations.
According to Kliemann, he used his reputation, his name and free of charge to quickly organize masks in Germany at wholesale level during the pandemic.
Kliemann presented himself in his Instagram post “I’m sorry. I’m going to clean up now’ filled with remorse. He also explained that he had made money in his own shop selling masks – to the contrary, he had previously only spoken of prime costs. Kliemann wrote on the shop website: “That was a big communication error. Never maliciously or with fraudulent intent, but it was a mistake nonetheless.” He will donate the profit of more than 280,000 euros.
Kliemann has a large fan base – but his style also polarizes. He presents himself as a self-made type and free spirit. In addition to his music career, the most famous project is probably the “Kliemannsland”. This is a farm in Rüspel, Lower Saxony. There he built a kind of adventure playground for adults. There is handicrafts, screwing, music made – you can book workshops. Kliemann is also known for his do-it-yourself clips on YouTube, where he is followed by hundreds of thousands. Kliemann is also a businessman who is involved in companies.
A good week ago, Global Tactics founder Tom Illbruck spoke up on the Internet. He wrote about mistakes and misunderstandings for which he wanted to take responsibility. “During this, no doubt hectic, time at the beginning of the pandemic, I was unaware of the serious consequences my misconduct in communication could cause.” He announced that he would retire from the company. (dpa)