Amber gold

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Amber Gold headquarters in Gdansk
One of Amber Gold's 60 branches nationwide

The Amber Gold Sp. Is a company founded in 2009, Polish financial services company based in Gdansk , allegedly on investment gold specialized and other precious metals investment funds operational. Amber Gold was the main shareholder and thus the most important investor in the airlines OLT Express Germany , OLT Express Poland and OLT Express Regional . The company, whose business model was based on an investment system with a snowball character, filed for bankruptcy in August 2012 and is currently being wound up. Thousands of investors probably lost a large part of the deposits made. The public prosecutor's office has been investigating since July 2012, among other things, for violating the Polish banking law, for fraud and money laundering . The company founder was arrested. As a result of the corporate insolvency, which was hit by the media, there were parliamentary discussions on the state supervision of shadow banks (called "parabanks" in Poland) and the involvement of the son of former Prime Minister Donald Tusk in the activities of Amber Gold .

history

Registered in the Gdańsk commercial register as Grupa Inwestycyjna “EX” in January 2009 , the company changed its name to Amber Gold in July 2009 . The partners were the couple Plichta. The company marketed itself in a nationwide advertising campaign as the first Polish operator of investment funds specializing in precious metals investment and trading. Guarantee rates of up to 14% were advertised in press advertisements and on billboards .

As early as 2010, the Polish financial market regulator KNF ( Komisja Nadzoru Finansowego ) warned on its website that Amber Gold did not have a banking license, and in December 2009 it reportedly informed the public prosecutor in Gdansk about a suspected pyramid scheme . Allegedly initiated investigations, however, due to the alleged complexity of the case, did not restrict business operations or progressive customer acquisition. It was not until July 2012 that the Polish domestic secret service, now tasked with the investigation, took steps against the company, which led to an account blockade and the bankruptcy of Amber Gold on August 13, 2012 . All branches of the company were closed.

Amber Gold claims to have around 50,000 customers, the real number is estimated to be lower. Was first of about 80 million zloty vereinnahmtem financial assets speaking, you go temporarily out of about 140 million zloty. Amber Gold employed around 400 people. The law firm Chałas i Wspólnicy is preparing a class action against Amber Gold before.

As a result of the incident, which was widely exploited by the media in the summer of 2012, the opposition accused the government, the prosecutor general and the justice minister of having done nothing to save Polish investors (mostly older people) from losing their savings. The government pointed out that it was not their job to investigate complaints, but that the local prosecutor had made mistakes. However, the Committee on Financial Stability (Komitet Stabilności Finansowej) , which was founded in 2008, has also been dealing with the case since August 16, 2012 .

OLT Express airlines

As part of the investigation into Amber Gold and the account freezes, the company was unable to continue to finance its loss-making OLT Express airlines. Initially, at the end of July, OLT Express Regional ceased its flight operations, OLT Express Poland followed a few days later. The leased aircraft were returned to the leasing partners. Although they had only been active in the Polish market for a few months, the two low-cost Polish airlines had become serious competitors of the largest Polish airline LOT , forcing them to make significant price cuts on parallel routes.

Sponsorship

Amber Gold supported Andrzej Wajda's film about the life of Lech Wałęsa , which is currently being produced . MPs of the Solidarna Polska party asked the film producer Akzon Studio to repay the money received to the defrauded customers of Amber Gold . The Gdańsk Zoo also received a donation from Amber Gold .

Marcin Plichta

The founder and managing director of Amber Gold was Marcin Plichta, born in 1984. In 2008 he was sentenced - under the name Marcin Stefanski - to a suspended prison sentence for embezzlement with his then financial services company Multikasa . He then took the name of his wife. Also in June 2010 he was sentenced to probation in 57 cases for stealing credit at GE Bank .

On August 17, 2012, the Gdansk Public Prosecutor brought charges against Plichta on six counts. The allegations include the conduct of banking business without a license, the unauthorized foreign exchange trading as well as the submission of forged documents when registering in the commercial register. For his part, the defendant admitted not filing the 2011 annual accounts. Initially placed under police supervision only, he was arrested on August 29, 2012. During a search of the business premises of Amber Gold and private residences Plichtas and his wife Katarzyna, around 500 files, electronic data carriers and precious metal worth around 11 million złoty (57 kilograms of gold, 1 kilogram of platinum and 1 kilogram of silver) were seized.

Another trial against Marcin and Katarzyna Plichta began in Gdansk in March 2016 . Both are accused of a Ponzi scheme of cheating up to 19,000 small investors by a total of 200 million euros. They had promised investors that they would invest the money in precious metals.

Michał Tusk

The son of former Polish Prime Minister Donald Tusk, Michał, was born in 1982 and was a PR consultant for the airline OLT Express . This activity is interpreted as a possible conflict of interest with working at Gdansk Airport . Donald Tusk's statement that he had advised his son against working with entrepreneurs with a criminal record was also taken up critically by various media. The former head of government is then suspected of having known of a possible bankruptcy earlier than the deceived investors.

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ a b c d acc. Rudolf Hermann, Blooming shadow banks in Poland from August 15, 2012 at NZZ.ch
  2. ↑ a b according to Niklas Kramer, Between the European Championship, bankruptcies and amber gold. The Polish Economy in Summer 2012 , information letter from the Konrad-Adenauer-Stiftung (Poland Office) of August 27, 2012, p. 2
  3. ↑ The cost of advertising is estimated at 20 million złoty for the first half of 2012 alone, according to Article After the goldrush , p. Web links
  4. ↑ a b according to Financial Stability Committee starts meeting on Amber Gold ( Memento of the original dated August 31, 2012 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The @1@ 2Template: Webachiv / IABot / www.pap.pl archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. at the Polish press agency PAP on August 16, 2012
  5. ↑ a b according to Investigation of fraud by the investment company "Amber Gold" at Auslandsdienst.pl (Foreign Service of Polish Radio) on August 27, 2012
  6. ↑ a b c d acc. Laura Frommberg, investment scandal: Poland's premier criticized on August 15, 2012 at Handelszeitung.ch
  7. ↑ according to Kancelaria prawna jesienią złoży pozew zbiorowy przeciw Amber Gold at Gazeta Prawna Online (Biznes) from August 13, 2012 (in Polish)
  8. ↑ according to Dispute over alleged fraud at BizTravel Online ( fvw.de ) on August 13, 2012
  9. ↑ according to Now Wajda's “Walesa” film is also falling into the twilight ( memento of the original from September 30, 2014 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. at Infoseite-Polen.de from August 15, 2012  @1@ 2Template: Webachiv / IABot / www.infoseite-polen.de
  10. ↑ according to Michał Miłosz, W kraju bezprawia in the weekly newspaper Tygodnik Solidarność , No. 34 of August 17, 2012 (in Polish)
  11. ^ Trial against those responsible for the pyramid scheme in Poland . In: The time . March 21, 2016, ISSN  0044-2070 ( zeit.de [accessed on September 13, 2016]). Trial against those responsible for the pyramid scheme in Poland ( memento of the original from September 16, 2016 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was automatically inserted and not yet checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice.  @1@ 2Template: Webachiv / IABot / www.zeit.de
  12. ↑ according to Michał Tusk nakłamał i na tym zarobił on fact of August 14, 2012 (in Polish)

Web links

Commons : Amber Gold  - collection of pictures, videos and audio files