The Financial Supervisory Authority (BaFin) warns consumers about the company Baring Private Equity London. The company has been contacting customers of Interactiv Global Brokers on an unsolicited basis and offering to buy off shares in Ecological Technologies Ltd. that these customers had bought in the past through Interactiv Global Brokers as broker.
Baring Private Equity London told these investors that, if they wanted to accept the aforementioned offer, they would need to own a minimum holding in the shares in Ecological Technologies Ltd. In order to increase their holdings accordingly, investors were referred to the company Seidel Finance. Seidel Finance has already been operating on the market in connection with the shares of Ecological Technologies Ltd. which it was distributing without the required approvals and authorisations: BaFin reported on these activities on its website on 11 July 2023 and 14 August 2023. BaFin also published a warning about the activities of Interactiv Global Brokers on 22 March 2023.
On its website baring-eu.com, Baring Private Equity London also uses the names Baring Private Equity Europe, BPE Europe Real Estate and BPEA Europe. No entry under any of these company names can be found in the British register of companies managed by Companies House. There is also no evidence of a collaboration with companies bearing similar names and registered with Companies House. We therefore assume that Baring Private Equity London is committing identity fraud.
The information stated above gives reasonable grounds to suspect that Baring Private Equity London is providing financial and/or investment services in Germany without the required authorisation.
Anyone conducting banking business or providing financial or investment services in Germany may do so only with authorisation from BaFin. However, some companies offer these services without the required authorisation. Information on whether a particular company has been granted authorisation 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.
