For his daily business Lüdenbach has always pushed someone else forward. for years he hid behind Maiwolf Holding in St. Gallen. Since 1991 using this firm, there have been established diverse companies in Switzerland and other countries that concentrate primarily on world-wide directory scams and the associated international debit collecting activity. Yet for years the name 'Lüdenbach' appeared nowhere.
Last July the police confiscated the business files of several Maiwolf companies as a result of a prosecution initiated by the Swiss Federation. The suspicion was 'unfair trade practices' on a huge scale. The police did not know until two weeks ago that they were dealing with Meinolf Lüdenbach, who lives in Vallvidrera near Barcelona (Tages-Anzeiger 7th and 10th September). Further research now shows that he has cavorted in this field since well before 1991. As long ago as 1982 Lüdenbach founded the firm of Merwil in Barcelona, at that time was still using his address in Hamburg. The firm obtained practically its entire capital from IGV Intertrade Guide Verlag also established in 1982 with a registered office in Balzers, Liechtenstein.
Although the company was domiciled in Liechtenstein, in the company register of Barcelona, IGV is declared to be a Swiss company. Meinolf Lüdenbach took the rudder of Merwil immediately as the Managing Director, moved to Barcelona and shortly afterwards gave Hans-Dieter Steudel extensive authority to conduct business. It did not take long before Merwil was renamed IGV Merwil.
This company structure gives clues to Lüdenbach's current business activities within Maiwolf Holding. IGV operated in Switzerland during the 1980's with dubious methods for 'catching' address entries: the entries for the directory 'PTC Yellow Pages' cost almost 1000 Francs a year and the contract runs for 5 years, IGV representatives try to put their 'customers' under time pressure to sign and the company operates internationally.
Also, a first debt collecting company was formed. This is how the Liechtenstein Public Trustee and show jumping horse patron, Silvio Vogt established in 1983 the firm Executiv alongside IGV Liechtenstein. Today Executiv grants generous loans to people close to Maiwolf.
Besides Silvio Vogt and his Trustee company, Juracta, one meets a further person who works nowadays for Maiwolf companies: Gust Eugster, a Public Trustee from Appenzell. In 1987 he founded a spin-off in Switzerland, IGV Intertrade Guide Verlag in Appenzell.
In 1988 Hans-Dieter S. became Managing Director of IGV Liechtenstein and in the same year Intercable was founded in Hünenberg, Zug. This is Lüdenbach's Swiss intermediary company enabling him to take part in the directory business before he started the activities of Maiwolf Holding.
In 1996 IGV Merwil in Barcelona was wound up - the cash flowed back to Liechtenstein where it landed with Hans-Dieter S. His and Meinolf Lüdenbach's paths have since separated; they are however both still active in this strange directory business.