In a long video and an even longer blog article, the disgraced influencer Fynn Kliemann does damage control. The first statement after weeks of silence is well received by fans.

There are turbulent weeks behind the former model influencer Fynn Kliemann. After the ZDF Magazin Royale published research on questionable mask deals and non-transparent fundraising campaigns, Kliemann found himself in need of explanation. Several interviews and initial justifications followed, but the criticism could not be eliminated.

Now, after several weeks of radio silence, Fynn Kliemann is making a new attempt and has published a six-minute video on Instagram and a long blog entry, supported by documents and sketches, in his online shop. He “is going to clean up now,” explains a visibly battered Kliemann.

The video and the blog entry serve not only as an apology to those affected, fans and the public, but also as an explanation of some circumstances that, according to Kliemann, got mixed up in the past few days.

Fynn Kliemann: “The right person is being criticized here”

The video begins surprisingly self-critical. Kliemann begins with the words: “Honestly? I always thought the criticism was kicking the wrong person.” But after reviewing all the documents and facts, he came to the conclusion: “The right person is being criticized here.”

A lengthy list of everything that went wrong begins – and what Kliemann ultimately had nothing to do with, despite all the entanglements. He “pushed processes without really questioning them” and spoke of “donations without being involved.” In summary, he says: “I screwed up so much and then just failed as this guy I never wanted to be – an entrepreneur. And I’m sorry about that.”

In the video, he only briefly mentions the income that Kliemann generated from the sale of the masks. However, the blog entry explains the sales extensively. Kliemann: “Then I made you believe that I don’t earn anything with these masks in my shop. I always talk about transparency and then an auditor has to come first to even calculate what money was left.” The result of this test: Kliemann earned around 282,000 euros on the masks. Kliemann gives the impression that he actually didn’t know that until his documents were checked independently – because apparently the money wasn’t the most important thing for him.

And why all this if not for the money? Kliemann answers that too: “It just felt really good to be liked by you. And the truth is that I wanted more of it. It may be embarrassing, but I wanted to be crasser than I am.” Kliemann admits to having made many mistakes, but always wanting to take responsibility for them.

Interviews after the revelations “just wrong”

Regarding the first interviews, for example with Der Spiegel, Kliemann says: “That was really quick and just wrong.” He refers to the fact that he answered the questions about his income from the masks with an estimated number without knowing the actual amount.

Through the audit, he now knows that 60 cents per mask “are left over”. Together, this amounts to 282,000 euros after taxes. But he keeps the promise from back then that he didn’t want to earn anything with the masks, says Kliemann. He would donate all profits in four equal parts to those who suffered most from his mistakes: refugees and exploited workers in the textile industry. In order to avoid “another quick shot”, he is now looking for clubs and non-governmental organizations and only wants to publish later who the money should go to.

“I’m cleaning everything up now. I’m rebuilding myself and everything around me so that something like this can never happen again,” Kliemann continues. “And first of all, I will dissolve all ties to Tom Illbruck (Global Tactics founder, editor’s note) […] It’s not that easy […], but at least I have everything has already been legally arranged so that my shares […] go back for a symbolic euro each.”

Kliemann establishes an advisory board

For his other ventures, Kliemann intends to set up an advisory board and seek advice from “the smartest people I know.” In the past he thought he “knew everything better”, but now he realized that he “has so much to learn”.

Kliemann also has news about his “LDGG” holiday home rental: Although he communicated there too vaguely, the amount donated by his guests is “complete” and they are now talking to a new partner about the future of the company and the use of the donations. “I communicated so shitty there, too,” sums up the Youtuber.

After the explanations, Kliemann refers to himself again: “Sometimes I’m overzealous and maybe a shit entrepreneur, but I’m not a fraud. I just want to make a difference and I want to keep doing that. I just hope that I can show you that .” He closes the video with the words: “I’m going to continue cleaning up now.”

It’s in his blog entry

Further details on the mask deals, his participations and donations can be found on his website “Oderso.cool”. The most important statements:

In connection with the masks, Kliemann published a new document from the “Civilfleet-Support e.V.” association on its website. He asked the club how poor the masks that “global tactics e.K.” had donated, really were. The answer: the majority of the masks were usable, only about every tenth mask was defective, for example had a wrong cut or insufficiently attached straps. The association confirms that Kliemann was not involved in the communication, the coordination was completely through “global tactics e.K.” ran.

In addition to several other answers to questions that have arisen in recent weeks, Kliemann also provides an explanation for the much-criticized sentence “Crisis can also be cool” and shows the sentence in a larger context. It came about when he spoke to an intermediary about an urgent procedure by TÜV that had arisen in the course of the pandemic for testing masks. Kliemann apparently saw this faster approval process as a good thing that was only made possible by the pandemic. Nevertheless, he writes: “I reacted very inappropriately to a global pandemic and its consequences, even if it was taken out of context.”

“It will continue”

Finally, Kliemann explains how things will continue for him and his projects: “It will continue. Of course, more structure is needed, more security and trust should be paired with the necessary responsibility – and where important also control. I will let actions speak , fewer words to preface. And, as planned, I will be handing things over to smarter people and focusing on less more.”

Sources: Instagram, Oderso.cool