Tag: PPRO Group

The notoriously well-known Deutsche Handelsbank has been in the FinTelegram focus over the last three years. Like ING's Dutch subsidiary Payvision and, until its collapse, Wirecard, the bank was a prime address for scammers and cybercrime organizations. Uwe Lenhoff, who died in prison in 2020, was one of the clients of Deutsche Handelsbank and used the bank to launder the illicit proceeds of his huge lotto scam LottoPalace. Now the German financial institution seems to be about to its dirty payment division.

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.