Police search offices of financier

The Zug police have revealed that last Monday, 5 February, they searched through the offices of a financier in Baar after they became aware he may be complicit with others in an illegal EUR 87-million snowball investment fraud. The businessman in question, who has not been named, expressed great shock at the accusations and denies any involvement.
 
Not only were the offices in Baar searched, so, too, were six business associates of the financier in Berlin Munich and Leipzig. All of them have been involved with a parent German firm providing expert advice in matters such as financial consulting and planning, not least in relation to tax and the law, the Baar office acting as a clearing house.
 
Speaking on behalf of Zug Police, Frank Kleiner confirmed last week’s raid on the offices but was not able to provide further information. However, journalists of the Zuger Zeitung are in possession of copies of court documents issued in the Tiergarten (zoo) district of Berlin and the warrant allowing police to undertake raids there and in the other two German cities mentioned, all in relation to fraud on a large scale.
 
According to the information in these documents, it appears those involved began to set up an illegal investing tool, known as snowballing, promising investors returns as high as 30% if they put their money in high-risk DAX futures, a contract duly drawn up between the various German consultants involved and the office in Baar.
 
However, it seems the money raised, some EUR 87 million, was not invested, but simply transferred from one to another of all involved, each hiving off commission and fees, the investors duly kept happy with bogus information about how well their funds were doing.
 
When asked for his response to the allegations, the fiduciary agent in Baar said there was no evidence of any fraud in the figures he had looked at and he was supported in this by his lawyer. However, he did mention work in relation to the management of these assets had been outsourced to a company in Gibraltar, with whom contact was suddenly lost last November, as a result of which the Baar financier and his German associates had gone to the British Overseas Territory themselves to investigate but had been unable to find the person responsible for running the asset management company there. As a result, legal proceedings were taken out both in Zug and Berlin, the brokers involved duly informed, too.
 
The Baar fiduciary agent said it was only natural his name had appeared in documentation emanating from Berlin as his company had an arrangement with the tax consultancy involved in Germany. “As I am a member of the board of this company, my details appeared, too, of course,” he said, as he announced he was prepared to cooperate fully with the authorities, German ones, too, as they delve into the matter.
 
It has also become apparent that the Swiss Financial Market Supervisory Authority, Finma, has also been following development in connection with this company in Baar, it appearing on a special list of companies where investigation into illegal activity has begun, but nothing concrete has been able to be ascertained; or as a result of the firms in question failing to respond to requests for information from Finma, or providing false information. Other firms on such a list include those where investors are at considerable risk of losing their funds. For his part, the Baar financier said his company had been placed on such a list because it had become apparent that there were legal problems with the arrangement with the afore-mentioned German tax consultancy. As a result of this, all investors had been informed that cooperation was being wound down and that they would have their investments reimbursed. It was shortly afterwards that Finma sent a questionnaire to the Baar firm, with “all questions duly answered”, to quote the businessman.
 
The photograph is for illustrative purposes only.