The perpetrators are trying to attract potential investors on social media; in doing so, they are using the company names “CitadelESC“, “Citadel Investitionsclub“, “Citadel Europe Smart Team“ or “Citadel Europe Smart Capital“. They are offering an app called “CTDL-ESC”. BaFin also has evidence to suggest that the perpetrators are using the name “Citadel Securities” to operate the – currently inactive – website “cesc-europe.com”.

The perpetrators untruthfully claim that this offer is being made by Citadel Securities GCS (Ireland) Limited or by another company belonging to the Citadel group. This is a case of identity theft. The Citadel group has also published a warning notice in this regard on their website: Notices - Citadel.

Anyone providing financial, investment or cryptoasset 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 authorised by BaFin can be found in BaFin’s database of companies. There have been cases, however, where the perpetrators have also referred to this database and were thus committing identity theft, as in the present case.

BaFin is issuing this warning on the basis of section 37 (4) of the German Banking Act (Kreditwesengesetz – KWG) and section 10 (7) of the German Cryptomarkets Supervision Act (Kryptomärkteaufsichtsgesetz – KMAG).