The Federal Financial Supervisory Authority BaFin warns against offers in WhatsApp groups, which are allegedly operated by Wellington Management and led by Mark Mandel and his assistant Anna Schmidt. According to information available to BaFin, recommendations for the purchase of financial instruments and cryptocurrencies, which can allegedly be traded via institutional accounts, are offered in various WhatsApp groups. The offers do not originate from Wellington Management Europe GmbH or their employees. This is a case of identity fraud. The unknown operators are providing financial, investment and crypto-asset services without the required authorisation.
In these WhatsApp groups (e.g. O-02 Trendhandelsclub, P-02 and Wegfinder im Aktienmarkt-B2) the so-called Wellington Market Strategy Centre or Wellington Strategy Exchange Centre, as well as the opening of an institutional account are being promoted.
Anyone conducting banking business or providing financial, investment or crypto asset services in Germany may do so only with authorisation from BaFin. However, some companies offer these services without the required authorisation. Information on whether companies have been authorised by BaFin can be found in BaFin’s database of companies.
The information provided by BaFin is based on section 37 (4) of the German Banking Act (Kreditwesengesetz – KWG).
Please be aware:
BaFin, the German Federal Criminal Police Office (Bundeskriminalamt – BKA) and the German state criminal police offices (Landeskriminalämter) recommend that consumers seeking to invest money online should exercise the utmost caution and do the necessary research beforehand in order to identify fraud attempts at an early stage.
