# Florian Bollen

Andreas Franz Ansgar Bollen (born July 1965), known professionally as Florian Bollen, is a German businessman and former chairman of Great Wheel Corporation. He is a suspect in the Berlin Public Prosecutor's Office investigation into the embezzlement of millions from the closed Global View real estate fund earmarked for the construction of the Great Berlin Wheel near the Berlin Zoological Garden. Bollen is also accused of business ties with Yanukovych's "chief financier", pro-Russian oligarch Serhiy Kurchenko, who is under EU, United States, United Kingdom and Ukrainian sanctions.

## Biography

He was born in July 1965 in Germany.

### Education

Florian Bollen lived in Los Angeles from 1989 to 1992, where he worked for an entertainment finance group. He holds an MBA from the University of California and the Azusa Pacific University.

### Career

Florian Bollen has worked in various positions in the international media industry since 1990. After completing his education, Florian Bollen worked for four years at the Bertelsmann Group. As Head of Feature Programmes, he was responsible for rights management and procurement for the German pay-TV channel Premiere. He was a member of the Bertelsmann/Kirch Pay TV working group for merger negotiations and due diligence.
Later, Bollen set up and managed the central purchasing unit for MTG Media Group, based in London. Bollen was also responsible for creating Scandinavia's largest internet entertainment portal and for forging strategic alliances for TV and internet development between MTG, Sony/Columbia and Disney.
From 2000 to 2002 he was Chief Executive Officer of Internationalmedia AG.
He was Chairman of Great Wheel Corporation, which operated Ferris wheels in the United Kingdom and Singapore.
Florian Bollen also owns a stake in Supertubos Ltd (UK) through his son, Felix Bollen. The company operates under the German Craft Brewing and Gleisgarten brands, which operates beer facilities in London and Vienna. The company and its subsidiaries are known for numerous scandals and defaults.

## Controversy
### Investor losses

Under the management of Florian Bollen, around 1,000 German private investors participated in the Singapore Flyer project. According to a Financial Times investigation, the returns were insufficient to pay the dividends declared in the fund's prospectus and investors ended up making losses.
Frankfurt-based Delbrück Bethmann Maffei, a subsidiary of Dutch ABN AMRO, was involved in the deals. According to its data, around 1,000 private investors took part with amounts of 20,000 euros or more. A total of €53 million was raised in this way, a good third of the total investment of €135 million. The rest of the money also came from Germany via HypoVereinsbank (HVB).

### Singapore Flyer accident

In 2008, while Florian Bollen was managing Great Wheel Corporation, an accident occurred on the Singapore Flyer. As a result of a short circuit, 173 passengers were stuck for several hours.

### Suspicion of embezzlement of millions for the construction of the Great Berlin Wheel

In 2010, the Berlin Public Prosecutor's Office investigated three executives of the Great Wheel Corporation group of companies for possible embezzlement of investor money. They were suspected of embezzling millions from the closed Global View real estate fund, which had been earmarked for the construction of a Ferris wheel in the Great Berlin Wheel. The investigation was reportedly based on a criminal complaint filed by law firm Mattil & Kollegen on 19 March.
The defendants in the investigation are the former managing directors of Great Berlin Wheel GmbH & Ko.KG Michael Weiser and Stefan Matter, as well as the CEO of the Singapore-based project holding company Florian Bollen. The charge in the criminal complaint is that the directors "improperly breached their obligations to safeguard the financial interests of others". The Public Prosecutor's Office has confirmed an investigation based on initial suspicions.
According to the investigation, a total of more than three million euros was transferred to the Middle East, Singapore or the British Virgin Islands in the Caribbean under fictitious contracts and accounts with the help of intermediary companies. The criminal complaint states that no remuneration could be established. It is also alleged that a service contract was entered into that transferred 40,000 euros per month from a Berlin-based design company to Singapore. Another five to six-figure sums were allegedly paid to a project management company owned by one of Giant Wheel's executives. These payments were made in 2006 and 2007, i.e. during the start-up phase of the Giant Wheel projects, which were to be financed through the Global View property fund.
The investigation by the Berlin Public Prosecutor's Office lasted from 2010 to 2015.

### Business ties with EU-sanctioned Kurchenko

According to an investigation by the Austrian daily Der Standard, Florian Bollen has business ties with Viktor Yanukovych's chief financier, pro-Russian oligarch Serhiy Kurchenko, who now lives in Moscow and is on the sanctions lists of the European Union, the United States, the United Kingdom and Ukraine. During the investigation into the Kurchenko case, Ukrainian judicial authorities came across several offshore companies in Cyprus. One of them still belongs to the Ukrainian restaurant chain, which has been owned by Florian Bollen since October 2022, according to his own statement. Der Standard does not rule out that Kurchenko is partnering with Bollen to finance the Viennese restaurant business.