The tangled story of teenage founder Adem Karagöz continues. The start-up scene has just analyzed the company history of the supposedly 18-year-old, who wanted to compete with Lufthansa with Bavarian Airlines. We uncovered dubious companies, questionable crypto projects based on the “pump and dump” scheme and other inconsistencies at the current Bavarian Airlines GmbH, which was never entered in the commercial register.
Elsewhere, too, Karagöz is said not to have taken the truth very seriously. This is the result of joint research by the start-up scene and aviation expert Sebastian Steinbach from the air crash podcast. There are many indications that Karagöz, who presents himself in public as an 18-year-old, is only 15 years old. In addition, his business partners report that he has not paid bills of several hundred thousand euros.
Steinbach spoke to various business partners of Adem Karagöz. Gründerszene also viewed all documents and spoke to everyone involved. Steinbach had previously analyzed the airline plans of Adem Karagöz’ Bavarian Airlines in his air crash podcast and judged them to be unrealistic.
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Is Adem Karagoz 15 years old?
The fact that Adem Karagöz may not be of legal age was already apparent from the initial research by Steinbach and the start-up scene. Several local newspapers reported that Adem Karagöz had been active in a taekwondo club in 2018. In the C youth, however, only athletes between ten and twelve years are represented. The now supposedly adult would have to be between 15 and 17 years old at the present time.
The entrepreneur himself provided another indication of the real age of Adem Karagöz: On one of his numerous Linkedin profiles, he states that he will complete his Abitur at the Gymnasium Rheinkamp Europaschule Moers in just three years, in 2026.
An identity document provides further proof of his age: Adem Karagöz has been supported since January 2023 by the Saarland entrepreneur and investor Michael Lampel. A few days ago, Lampel contacted co-author Steinbach after he had reported on the inconsistencies at Karagöz in the podcast. Lampel then asked a business partner of Karagöz to show him the young entrepreneur’s original ID. There, Lampel discovered that Karagöz was only 15 years old.
Gründerszene questioned Adem Karagöz about the accusation that he was not of legal age. Karagöz says he rejects the accusation. Karagöz also never gave a partner an ID card.
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Advance payments and open invoices
Lampel says he brought Karagöz together with contacts from his network a few weeks ago, believing that Bavarian Airlines was serious planning for an adult.
According to the investor, he financed flights, hotel stays, business meals – and an extravagant lifestyle. Around 45,000 euros are outstanding, which Karagöz has to pay back to Lampel. These invoices are available for the start-up scene. In addition, according to Lampel, there would be another 120,000 euros in unpaid invoices, which came about through his network, among other things, for consulting, a security company and PR.
When asked by Gründerszene about the outstanding bills, Karagöz replies that his bank blocked his account at short notice.
As security, Karagöz referred to funds of three million Swiss francs from the Swiss UBS Bank, says Lampel. However, the money was frozen, which is why Lampel should pay in advance. However, the bank statements presented by Karagöz later turned out to be fake.
The young person could have searched the Internet for pictures of bank statements from the UBS bank and added his personal data, as a reverse image search on Google shows. However, some of the data from the online template used – such as transfer purposes or the IBAN – was adopted without any adjustments.
Karagöz stated to Gründerszene that he had no knowledge of such a bank statement. In principle, he also did not send any bank statements to Lampel as security.
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Bavarian Airlines should take off as a virtual airline
Lampel became suspicious when Karagöz’s expenses piled up, but no progress was made with regard to the establishment of the GmbH or the planning of the airline.
The fact that Bavarian Airlines GmbH is still in the process of being founded is because, according to Karagöz to Gründerszene, the co-CEO Mr. Natanel Salomon Pretzel has not yet signed the founding documents, according to the notary’s office. Pretzel is one of the co-founders of Bavarian Airlines and was also involved in other Karagöz ventures, as Gründerszene found out.
Despite Lampel’s suspicions, the investor financed the Bavarian Airlines “summit meeting” in Malta, where a virtual airline deal was signed between Bavarian Airlines and Universal Airlines.
Universal Airlines is a provider of virtual airlines. With this “white label product” third parties – such as eta the Bavarian Airlines – can offer flights under their own name without having to have a flight certificate or aircraft themselves. In professional circles this is called ACMI (Aircraft, Maintenance and Insurance) or Wet Lease. The virtual airline acts as an intermediary and is difficult to recognize from the outside. Universal Airlines invoiced 300,000 euros for this service, which Karagöz has not yet paid, the company boss says.
Karagöz contradicts the start-up scene: The bill has been paid.
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High financial damage
Another victim is David Lennards, who was commissioned by Adem Karagöz in December 2022 to draw up a business plan for Bavarian Airlines. According to Lennards, he then sent a first draft in January. Karagöz is said not to have commented on further inquiries from Lennards about completing the business plan. Instead, the youngster offered him the post of chairman of the supervisory board at Bavarian Airlines. Lennards says he was always available to do so, but never signed a contract to do so. Lennards has not yet received payment for his work as a consultant in the amount of more than 5,000 euros.
Karagöz commented to Gründerszene on Lennard’s outstanding bills that, as with Lampel’s bills, he currently has no access to his account.
A real estate agent from Frankfurt, with whose help Karagöz wanted to buy an apartment in the seven-digit euro range in December, was also damaged. But Karagöz did not pay the purchase price. “There was never any money,” says the broker when asked by the start-up scene. Karagöz had been given a four-week deadline for this. Because Karagöz did not pay the bill, the seller of the property did not pay any commission to the real estate agent’s company. It is about a sum of more than 100,000 euros. Instead, he is said to have incurred costs for a notary and the reversal.
Karagöz says to Gründerszene that on February 16 he already paid the first of three installments of one million euros each to the property developer.
Together with the advance payments from Lampe, the bills from his network and the bill from Universal Airlines, the damage caused by Karagöz would amount to over half a million euros.
Adem Karagöz confronted under the pretense of a business meeting
After investor Lampel became suspicious, he invited Karagöz to a meeting in Berlin a few days ago. Under the pretext of a normal meeting, he confronted the youth. Sebastian Steinbach attended the meeting acoustically in an adjoining room, as he tells Gründerszene. Among other things, Karagöz admitted to being 15 years old, Lampel and Steinbach told Gründerszene.
At the end of the meeting, according to Steinbach’s research, Lampel and other people from his network ended their collaboration with Karagöz. The Bavarian Airlines project died with that, according to Lampel. The website of Bavarian Airlines has been offline since then. However, the company continues to exist under Flybavarian.com, and Adem Karagöz is now listed there as the sole managing director.
Karagöz commented on this step to the Gründerszene: “The Bavarian Airlines website is currently being redesigned and we are in the process of reorganizing Bavarian Airlines. This also includes the management.”
Federal police examined Karagöz at the airport
After the meeting a few days ago, Karagöz was briefly detained by the federal police at Düsseldorf Airport and was then allowed to leave, as Karagöz confirmed to Gründerszene. According to ex-Bavarian Airlines consultant Lampel, it was about establishing the identity documents.
Adem Karagöz now has to brace himself for legal disputes with the alleged victims. Lampel told Gründerszene that, among other things, he would file a criminal complaint for commercial fraud. Added to this are the contradictory identification documents and the wrongful use of a doctorate.
According to Lampel, Karagöz sometimes referred to himself as “Dr. Karagöz” issued. The start-up scene also learned of cases in which Karagöz presented himself with a doctorate. In a co-working space in Düsseldorf, where the finance team of Bavarian Airlines was to be based, Karagöz signed up with his doctorate.
Karagöz denies this to the founding scene: “I have never used this prefix.”