The company opens trading accounts for customers on its trading platform bridgefund.io. These accounts purportedly allow customers to trade in forex products, contracts for difference (CFDs), commodities, indices, shares and cryptocurrencies. However, the company itself – using a remote administration tool – makes investment decisions regarding the accounts without first consulting the account holders. Furthermore, according to the terms and conditions published on the Bridgefund website, the company offers the sale of financial instruments at prices it has determined itself.

Bridgefund is therefore providing portfolio management under section 1 (1a) sentence 2 no. 3 of the German Banking Act (Kreditwesengesetz – KWG) and dealing on own account under section 1 (1a) sentence 2 no. 4 (c) of the KWG. The company does not hold authorisation from BaFin as required under section 32 (1) of the KWG and is therefore conducting unauthorised business.

The trading platform’s website does not have a legal notice. It also gives no other information about Bridgefund’s business domicile. Documents available to BaFin give business addresses for the company in St. Vincent and the Grenadines and in London.

Customers have received false tax demands in connection with business activities they have conducted with Bridgefund. The fake letters have supposedly been issued by a trading platform for purchasing cryptocurrencies. Such is not the case, however.