Clemens Tönnies
German businessman
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Key Takeaways
- Clemens Tönnies ( ˈkleːmɛns ˈtœnjəs ) is a German businessperson and billionaire who owns 45% of the meat processing company Tönnies Holding.
- 6 billion US dollars.
- Early life Tönnies was born as the son of the butcher Klemens Tönnies and his wife Maria in Rheda, where he grew up with six siblings.
- Tax investigation In 2012, German tax investigators searched Tönnies' office due to suspected tax evasion.
- The Cartel Office cited the shares as a main reason for rejecting the merger.
Clemens Tönnies (ˈkleːmɛns ˈtœnjəs) is a German businessperson and billionaire who owns 45% of the meat processing company Tönnies Holding. In 2022, Forbes estimated his wealth at 1.6 billion US dollars. From 2001 to 2020, he was a chairman of the supervisory board of the football club FC Schalke 04.
Early life
Tönnies was born as the son of the butcher Klemens Tönnies and his wife Maria in Rheda, where he grew up with six siblings.
Career
He took over the family company after his brother Bernd Tönnies died of a lung infection following a heart attack in 1994.
Tax investigation
In 2012, German tax investigators searched Tönnies' office due to suspected tax evasion.
In January 2013, the German Federal Cartel Office fined Tönnies 90,000 euros (of the maximum 100,000) because he had omitted his shares in the Zur Mühlen Group when attempting to merge his company with the slaughterhouse company Tummel. The Cartel Office cited the shares as a main reason for rejecting the merger.
Tönnies obtained public funds from the German tax administration via CumEx deals. In these deals, he obtained refunds of taxes he had never paid.
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