In addition, BaFin has not received securities prospectuses from the company; the prospectuses are required under the German Securities Prospectus Act (Wertpapierprospektgesetz – WpPG) for an offer of shares to the public. There are significant doubts about whether the offeror is willing and able to transfer the shares being offered.

RedPoint Invest is offering its services via its website redpoint-invest.com. According to the website, the company’s registered office is located in London, United Kingdom. However, the terms and conditions on the website state that the company is subject to Californian law.

According to the information and documentation available to BaFin, RedPoint Invest took over the business activities of Vintage Group. BaFin issued a warning about Vintage Group on 3 July 2024.

In the past, there have been frequent reports of attempted fraud where shares in well-known companies are offered for subscription. However, these shares are not delivered to the clients after payment is made, and the offerors can no longer be reached; in some cases, the offered shares do not even exist.

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 attempted fraud at an early stage.

Background information:

Unless an exemption from the prospectus requirement applies, securities may be offered to the public in Germany only if a prospectus approved by BaFin in advance has been published. During the approval process, BaFin checks whether the minimum information required by law is included in the prospectus and whether its content is understandable, coherent and consistent. However, BaFin does not check whether the information contained in the prospectus is correct. Moreover, it does not check whether the issuer is reliable nor does it examine the product in question.

No valid prospectus in relation to any public offering of Northvolt or Databrick shares has been filed with or approved by BaFin. You can check whether an approved prospectus for an offer of securities to the public has been filed with BaFin by consulting the Prospectuses filed database on the BaFin website.

In addition, companies offering shares of other companies to consumers need prior authorisation from BaFin. The same applies for pre-IPO shares. Information on whether particular companies have been authorised by BaFin can be found in BaFin’s database of companies.