Financial Supervisory Authority (BaFin) has warned that the company Baring Private Equity London is "operating without the required authorisation in Germany.
In a statement on 23 August, the German regulator said 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, the regulator continued in its statement: "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."
