Erscheinung:29.05.2024 | Topic Unauthorised business, Consumer protection Identity fraud: BaFin warns consumers about the companies Paragon M&A (Germany) GmbH and Paragon M&A Limited
The Federal Financial Supervisory Authority (BaFin) warns consumers about the services offered by the companies Paragon M&A (Germany) GmbH and Paragon M&A Limited. According to information available to BaFin, the companies are providing financial and investment services without the required authorisation.
The companies conduct their activities under the name Paragon Invest, stating paragoninvest.net as their website. The operator of this website claims that the registered offices of Paragon M&A (Germany) GmbH are in Frankfurt am Main and Munich. However, the company does not have registered offices in either of these places.
Moreover, the operator refers to purported entries in the commercial register of the Frankfurt am Main Local Court (Amtsgericht) and in the British commercial register at Companies House. However, none of this information is correct.
The register data stated on the aforementioned website relate in actual fact to the companies Howden M&A (Germany) GmbH and Howden M&A Limited. Neither of these companies have any links whatsoever with Paragon M&A (Germany) GmbH, Paragon M&A Limited, the business activities conducted under the name Paragon Invest or the website paragoninvest.net. This is a case of identity fraud committed against Howden M&A (Germany) GmbH and Howden M&A Limited.
Anyone providing financial or investment services in Germany may do so only with authorisation from BaFin. However, some companies offer these services without the necessary authorisation. Information on whether a particular company has been granted authorisation by BaFin can be found in BaFin’s database of companies.
The information provided by BaFin is based on section 37 (4) of the German Banking Act (Kreditwesengesetz – KWG).
Please be aware
BaFin, the German Federal Criminal Police Office (Bundeskriminalamt – BKA) and the German state criminal police offices (Landeskriminalämter) recommend that consumers seeking to invest money online should exercise the utmost caution and do the necessary research beforehand in order to identify fraud attempts at an early stage.
