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Category: BaFin

BaFin

February 28, 2021

German Regulator launches probes into brokerunity and EmperiumFX scams

BaFin announced this week that it is investigating the operator of the broker scams brokerunity (www.brokerunity.com), Kode Tech Solutions LTD registered in the Marshall Islands with registration number 105303, as well as the operators of EmperiumFX (www.emperiumfx.com and www.emperiumfx.ch), Emperium Holding allegedly regulated in Mauritius under license number C216036192 by the Financial Services Commission of Mauritius (FSC). This also operates the ACB - A Class Bank scam.

February 23, 2021

German BaFin warns against GRAM broker scam

BaFin launched a probe into the GRAM a/k/ka FXGRAM broker scam currently active via the two websites with the domains www.gmmkex.com and www.akfxgram.com. Both websites state that they are registered and regulated by the Financial Conduct Authority in St. Vincent and the Grenadines. Likewise, they would soon be regulated by the Canadian FINTRAC. Of course, this is not correct. As a payment processor, we discovered Epay, whereby deposits can also be made via cryptocurrencies. On a BTC wallet, we discovered deposits of more than BTC 5.

February 16, 2021

BaFin warns against Argus Trade24 scam faking CySEC-regulated investment firms

The Argus Trade24 scam uses the SecureWallet24 service for deposits and trading. SecureWallet24 pretends to be a part of the Raiffeisen Bank International in Austria. We found the legal entities Argus Trade Ltd and QRS Trade Ltd associate with the scam. Argus Trade presents itself as a CySEC-regulated company. BaFin issued a warning against Argus Trade24 and launched a probe into the scam.

February 16, 2021

Another regulator warning against FX Leader broker scam!

The FMA issued an investor warning against the broker scam FX Leader (www.fx-leader.com) allegedly operated by FX-leader Limited, St. Vincent and the Grenadines. In July 2020, the German regulator BaFin issued a cease and desist order against the scam broker (read this report). The FX Leader scam is directly linked to the SwisCapital (www.swiscapital.com) scam. The latter already vanished and was operated by the offshore entity ScissCapital Limited, also registered in St. Vincent and the Grenadines.

February 15, 2021

German-Ukrainian Capital Letter Scam Group and its payment facilitators

Against the German Capital Letter GmbH and its network of offshore entities and scams such as BrightFinance, SolidInvest, GFXRoyal, STSRoyal, STSCrypto, or GFXFinance, various European regulators such as the UK FCA (here), BaFin (here), or the FMA (here) have already warned and issued Cease and Desist Orders over the last months. The Italian Consob has ordered a blackout of the sites (here). However, the scammers are unimpressed. Some scams are still active. Now the UK Financial Conduct Authority (FCA) issued a new warning.

February 12, 2021

Illegal German payment processors Z.I.E natural edition, Maka Marketing, and their network

German BaFin issued cease and desist orders against Z.I.E natural edition and Maka Marketing. Both payment processors processed bank transfers from victims of several broker scams like easytrade55 or MarketsSoft. The British resident Aron Wertheimer is involved in both companies. He is a director of Maka Marketing and the liquidator of Z.I.E natural edition. Scam victims who used Z.I.E natural edition or Maka Marketing should file their fund recovery claim with these companies and Aron Wertheimer and his partners.

February 9, 2021

BaFin’s Cease and Desist Order against illegal payment processor Egramming is final

The illegal German payment processors are very popular among the worldwide scammer community. Companies like B2G of Rainer Treuer and his Russian partner Oleg Shvartsman have processed tens of millions of scammers like Gal Barak or Uwe Lenhoff and contributed to the fraud of tens of thousands of small investors. In October 2020, BaFin issued a Cease and Desist Order against the German Egramming, which allegedly facilitated the crypto scam Capital Coin Exchange, among others. The order is final now!

February 4, 2021

Investor Alert – BaFin issues warning against 24shares abusing the regulator’s logo

BaFin has informed that the 24shares broker scam uses the BaFin logo to communicate with client-victims in an unauthorized and thus fraudulent manner. Moreover, boiler room agents of the broker scam are making unsolicited calls to German investors. The 24shares agents untruthfully state that BaFin has prompted them to make contact. They pretend to offer help with money losses that the investors have suffered in the past when investing.

January 31, 2021

European Compliance Mess – A challenging week for BaFin and MFSA

BaFin's President Felix Hufeld and Vice President Elisabeth Roegele had to resign because of the Wirecard scandal. Germany's Finance Minister Olaf Scholz wants to make a fresh start. In Malta, former CEO Joe Cuschieri and his longtime confidant and MFSA General Counsel Edwina Licari are involved in compliance issues. They have let themselves be invited to Las Vegas by Yorgen Fenech. Fenech is said to be the mastermind behind the murder of investigative blogger Daphne Caruana Galizia and suspected of bribing members of the former Maltese government.

December 16, 2020

BaFin employee fired for conspicious Wirecard speculations

The collapse of the listed German FinTech miracle Wirecard is still making high political waves. The regulator BaFin is at the center of criticism for not acting properly in this affair. The Wirecard fraud took place under the sleepy regulatory eyes of BaFin employees. Some employees actually used the Wirecard crisis and possibly insider information to speculate privately with its shares. At least four BaFin employees have been exposed as Wirecard speculators; one of them was fired as of November 30.

December 15, 2020

BaFin cease-and-desist order against unauthorized payment processor Fronter Decision

Fronter Decision GmbH, registered in Offenbach, Germany, was entered into the commercial register in April 2019. The Ukrainian Nikitin Oleksiy was appointed as the sole managing director. In fact, many of the German money laundering companies have Ukrainian directors. As non-EU citizens, these are hardly legally enforceable. BaFin issued a cease-and-desist order against the company in November 2020, which is now final.

December 15, 2020

BaFin cease-and-desist order against unauthorized payment processor Fronter Decision

The Unraveling of Rabidi and the Rise of the SoftSwiss Network: Our Updated Forensic Report

A few months ago, FinTelegram released a first forensic report on the bankruptcy of Rabidi N.V., a Curacao-registered online casino operator with hundreds of millions in revenues — and no traceable assets by the time of its collapse in May 2024. That report already raised serious questions about the opaque structures behind Rabidi’s operations and its successor, Liernin Enterprises Ltd.

DeFi Decoded: Smart Contracts – The Code Behind the DeFi Revolution

Smart contracts are the invisible architects of decentralized finance. These self-executing lines of code run everything from token swaps to lending platforms without middlemen. But while they offer autonomy, they also introduce new risks—bugs, exploits, and irreversible mistakes. In this fourth installment of our FinTelegram DeFi Series, we explain what smart contracts are.

CFTC

Despite New Crypto Friendlyness: No Settlement Between U.S. CFTC And KuCoin?

A planned settlement between the U.S.CFTC and crypto exchange KuCoin is now in limbo due to a reported policy shift within the CFTC. This change is attributed to the Trump administration’s new approach, which deprioritizes enforcement actions against crypto companies. As a result, a CFTC attorney said that it is "unlikely that such authorization will be granted in the near term" regarding the settlement approval.

SEC’s New Era: Paul Atkins Sworn In—Will Crypto Finally Get the Regulatory Clarity It Deserves?

The U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) has entered a new chapter with the swearing-in of Paul S. Atkins as its 34th Chairman, a move widely anticipated to mark a dramatic pivot in how the agency approaches crypto and DeFi regulation. For years, the financial industry—especially the burgeoning digital asset sector—has bristled under the SEC’s “Regulation by Enforcement” strategy.

Crypto Mogul Changpeng Zhao – Fallen, Rich, and Rising Again?

As spring 2025 blooms and Easter’s themes of rebirth fill the air, Changpeng Zhao emerges as one of the most controversial figures of startup mythology: a man who fell spectacularly, paid a price—then rose again, wealthier and louder than ever. Once the almighty architect of Binance, CZ now resides in Dubai with a net worth that Forbes estimates at $63 billion.