Tag: PPRO Financial

Deutsche Handelsbank has been the subject of our reports concerning scam facilitation and money laundering several times in recent years. The European Fund Recovery Initiative (EFRI) filed money laundering charges against Deutsche Handelsbank in 2020. Now the investigation by the German prosecutor's office has been ended. A penalty notice was issued, and the bank was ordered to pay a fine of €1 million. Although it is a high fine for such a small bank, EFRI principal Elfriede Sixt is not yet satisfied!

Germany has a new FinTech. FCA-regulated PPRO Financial is controlled by the German PPRO Holding GmbH and has affiliated companies in Europe, Asia, North and South America. Today, the company announced that it had received a total of $180 million in fresh money from investors based on a valuation of more than $1 billion. With this, PPRO joins the club of FinTech unicorns. However, in the past, PPRO has also attracted attention for supporting broker scams with its payment services.

Since its inception in 2018, the NGO European Fund Recovery Initiative (EFRI) has filed several crucial money-laundering complaints against banks and payment processors with the competent authorities in various jurisdictions. Without the intentional or negligent facilitation by these institutions, investment fraud and scams would not be possible in the first place. EFRI has now filed a money laundering complaint against Deutsche Handelsbank and the PPRO Group along with extensive evidence.

EFRI has filed several crucial money-laundering complaints against banks and payment processors with the competent authorities in various jurisdictions. Without the intentional or negligent facilitation of these institutions, investment fraud by scammers would not be possible in the first place. EFRI has now filed a money laundering complaint against Deutsche Handelsbank and the PPRO Group along with extensive evidence.

PPRO Group consists of PPRO Financial Limited (www.ppro.com), an e-money institution (EMI) regulated by the UK FCA and several other entities in different jurisdictions including South America and Asia. The German PPRO Holding GmbH is the controlling entity. Philipp Nieland, a German citizen, is a director in both companies. The FCA-regulated PPRO Financial has a bank account with the BaFin-regulated Deutsche Handelsbank and through these accounts, it processes payments from scam customers and their victims.

Deutsche Handelsbank has appeared as a payment processor in many binary options and broker scams. Moreover, the BaFin-regulated institution is a correspondent bank and partner of other regulated payment processors such as MoneyNetint, which also support scams. EFRI has filed a corresponding complaint to BaFin. The German regulator has now officially ordered Deutsche Handelsbank to implement appropriate AML measures to prevent money laundering and terrorist financing.

FinTelegram currently focuses on the exposure of questionable and negligent payment service providers. It is these payment service providers (PSP) that facilitate online fraud possible in the first place. Negligent regulated payment service providers such as Payvision or non-registered payment service providers such as Praxis Pay or Entropay are supporting perpetrators of online investor fraud. As the German PPRO Financial.