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- The Berlin-based company “Crisp Partners” has promised increased air traffic and new solar projects after purchasing Rostock-Laage Airport.
- Confidential documents suggest that fraudster Hendrik Holt is behind the deal.
- After the purchase, the financing apparently stalled, and several payments were reportedly missed.
Rostock-Laage Airport has been dormant for years. Originally planned for one million passengers per year, only around 37,000 passengers checked in and out in 2025. Sometimes, only one plane takes off and lands per day.
After the logistics company Zeitfracht’s plans to develop the airport into an East German air freight hub fell through, new hope emerged for the airport last year. In the middle of the year, the Berlin-based company Crisp Partners purchased the airport and made promising announcements: Not only was the flight offering to be expanded and the number of passengers increased by 50 percent, but large photovoltaic systems were also planned for many areas.
A company representative at the time explained: “Crisp Partners is a group of private investors. We only agreed to the project because some of our partners come from the renewable energy sector. And they saw great potential because there are many large, unused areas here where photovoltaic systems can be installed, along with energy storage systems.”
Who the partners were and how much the airport cost – all of that remained secret at the time. But now, BUSINESS INSIDER investigations are shedding light on the matter for the first time. Confidential documents and statements from people familiar with the transaction reveal that convicted wind farm fraudster Hendrik Holt apparently had the airport purchased from prison through intermediaries – for 3.1 million euros.
Holt, now 36, was arrested in April 2020 in the “Brandenburg Gate” suite of the luxurious Hotel Adlon in Berlin. The reason: He had sold non-existent wind farms in Germany to foreign energy companies. He and his family had forged countless documents to swindle approximately ten million euros, using the money to finance their lavish lifestyle. Holt was later sentenced to eight years in prison for, among other things, commercial and organized fraud. The judge attested to his “high level of criminal intent.”
Business partnership with Holt Holding
That Holt is behind the airport purchase is evidenced, among other things, by a non-public company document. It states that “Crisp Energy,” a brand of “Crisp Partners,” intends to purchase the civilian section of the airport in the second quarter of 2025. Furthermore, the document states: “Our business partnership with Holt Holding SA brings extensive experience in the project development of large-scale renewable energy plants, as well as expertise in IPOs, to our team. Through our network, we are unlocking business potential in the areas of sustainable production and renewable energies.”
The document does not reveal the extent to which Holt personally contributed money to the airport purchase. However, people familiar with the matter say that Holt was behind the investment. At the time of the airport purchase last year, he was in an open prison in Berlin and is said to have personally toasted the deal with Wolfram Simon-Schröter, CEO of Zeitfracht, and several other people at the Greek restaurant “Ach Niko Ach” in Berlin. Schröter reportedly did not know Holt’s identity at the time.
But where would Holt have gotten the money? In an ARD documentary, he claimed he had never been insolvent and had no debts. Posts on Instagram gave the impression that he did indeed have money. However, the Osnabrück public prosecutor’s office contradicted this impression in the “Neue Osnabrücker Zeitung” (NOZ). Michael Tschochohei, responsible for asset recovery, told the NOZ that while he knew Holt had “made a splash” on social media, “that Hendrik Holt is now saying he still has assets is simply impossible. There’s nothing left.” Holt could not be reached for comment.
Payment problems after purchase
The fact is, however, that according to another confidential document, the purchase agreement for the airport was signed in Berlin on July 4, 2025. The price: 3.1 million euros. But problems arose shortly after the contract was signed, as the first installment of 240,000 euros was not transferred by Crisp Partners in mid-July as planned.
“The failure to pay – a comparatively small first tranche – of the purchase price despite repeated requests is surprising insofar as CRISP Partners and the persons acting for the buyer repeatedly and expressly emphasized during the (pre-)contractual negotiations that raising the necessary financial resources was of course possible without any difficulty.”
This was also presented as unproblematic in connection with the disclosure behavior regarding the origin of the funds during the KYC process,” according to a lawyer’s letter from August 2025, in which “Crisp Partners” is threatened with consequences if the money plus nine percent default interest and fees is not paid immediately to the seller – a subsidiary of the Kolibri Group.
Furthermore, it states: “In addition, with regard to the conclusion of the contract, the overall circumstances surrounding it, and the current conduct of the persons acting on behalf of the buyer, it will be necessary to examine whether and to what extent criminally relevant offenses have been committed. This applies in particular to the initially unclear involvement and actual influence of Mr. Hendrik Holdt (sic!) in connection with the matter in question, which only became known to our client at a later date.”
This is how the airport managing director reacted
Zeitfracht declined to comment when contacted. According to information obtained by BUSINESS INSIDER (BI), the initial €240,000 payment was eventually transferred. However, a second and third payment of €1 million each, due at the end of 2025 and in March 2026 respectively, as well as a payment of €860,000 due at the end of June 2026, have not yet been made. The company claims that the conditions for the transactions were not met. Bailiffs are reportedly now handling the case.
BI inquired with airport managing director Ira Lauth, who is also the registered managing director of Crisp Partners, whether there was a business connection to Holt. She denied this. When asked whether this applied only to the airport or also to Crisp Partners, she did not answer.
She declined to comment on the outstanding payments. Lauth merely stated: “We cannot provide detailed information on the specifics of the company purchase agreement. The financing was provided by the buyer using private funds.” Rumors that a Berlin real estate agent had been commissioned to find a buyer were untrue.
Lauth: “There is currently no sales process underway for Flughafen Rostock-Laage-Güstrow GmbH. As the owner, we are pursuing a long-term business plan for the site. We are currently working on developing various infrastructure and energy projects with a planned investment volume of approximately 60 million euros.” Lauth explains, however: “External financing and consulting partners have been engaged to structure the necessary financing. This is standard procedure for projects of this scale.”
Would Holt even be allowed to buy an airport from prison? Legally, that wouldn’t be a problem in principle. The only legally relevant factor would likely be the origin of the money, specifically whether it came from criminal activity. That would probably be a matter for the Osnabrück public prosecutor’s office, which has jurisdiction over Holt.