Thomas Veszelits

"BIOGRAPHY "Politics is the art of managing one's environment." HUNTER S. THOMPSON"

"He internalized Picasso's credo: "What an artist is, is more important than what he does.""

""I have always been on my own. Just like my father. He believed that I had to make my own experiences with success and failure.""

"He implemented this strategy in Berlin from 2005 onwards, as a collector of "buildings with character.""

"the insolvency of Möbel Schieder became the accounting scandal of the year. Founded in 1964 in the North Rhine-Westphalian town of Schieder-Schwalenberg, the large carpentry was additionally registered in the Principality of Liechtenstein for tax reasons in 1974. From there, the expansion was initiated. With 140 subsidiaries and more than 11,000 employees at 41 locations in Europe and Asia, the holding company developed into the largest furniture manufacturer in Europe. Schieder produced the "Billy" shelves for Ikea and complete living room sets for Segmüller. In the end, the wood giant collapsed due to a massive management fraud. The founder Rolf Demuth, the "Henry Ford of the furniture industry," faked sales figures and thereby secured 243 million in credits and profit participation certificates. He was apparently led into this manipulation by one of his managing directors, who had previously been employed as a private equity manager at a well-known investment bank, and then forgot the slogan of his company "Schieder the furniture people" – Cobbler, stick to your last. In 2011, Rolf Demuth was sentenced to three years in prison as a convicted credit gambler."

"There are oil multinationals, commodity traders, pharma tycoons, and movie stars; even the stars of the music industry are swimming in money. In America, over 4000 music professionals earn far more than a million dollars a year, not to mention the top stars. There, we're talking about 10, 30, 50 million, and even more. With good connections to tax lawyers, such revenue streams are easily secured. Even the sons of presidents in Latin America and Africa do not know what to do with their millions. Gambling with hedge funds is fun. You just have to make it appealing to the guys."

"Even during his studies at the elite Bocconi University in Milan, he founded two start-up companies, which he sold at a high profit. Enter, restore, merge – following this principle, he bought the Italian retail group La Rinascente in 2005 with Investitori Associati, Deutsche Bank Real Estate (RREEF), and Pirelli Re, restructured it, and merged it with the cheaper department store chain UPIM."

"Moreover, 2010 is developing into an extremely successful business year for him. With his Liberty fund, he has invested in the Spanish media conglomerate Prisa."