BaFin Says Lucrative ‘Crypto Assistant’ Job Not from CWE Capital

The Federal Financial Services Authority (BaFin), the primary regulator of Germany's financial markets and institutions, has warned against a lucrative ‘crypto assistant’ job offer supposedly from CWE Capital Holdings GmbH.

The watchdog on Monday disclosed that CWE Capital Holding is not the operator of the website cwe-capital.com that advertised the job offer.

Additionally, it said that CWE Capital Holding is not offering the job vacancies advertised on the website.

On top of that, the company does not offer the services listed on the website, the regulator added.

Fake Crypto Assistant

BaFin explained that the job description attached to the job post entails so-called crypto assistants accepting payments from third parties through their own domestic bank accounts.

After this, the assistants are to forward the received funds to other third parties or to convert them into crypto assets such as Bitcoins.

“The funds transferred to the ‘Crypto Assistant’ account presumably come from third parties who themselves have become victims of criminal, particularly fraudulent acts,” BaFin said in a statement.

The German regulator warned that those who act as these crypto assistants or financial agents can be prosecuted.

In addition, it pointed out that while the job offer says a private account could be registered with the tax office, the step is not provided for by law and cannot be acted on.

Therefore, BaFin urged “affected consumers to inform the law enforcement authorities, the police or the public prosecutor's office, about such matters.”

BaFin Investigations

BaFin last month announced a formal investigation into blockchains.de, which is a trading platform.

According to the watchdog, the firm’s operators do not hold authorization under the KWG to conduct banking business or provide financial services in Germany.

Earlier in April, the regulator launched a similar formal investigation into UpbitFx Exchange Limited.

BaFin said it had reasons to suspect that the platform was being used to provide banking and financial services without the necessary authorization.

Furthermore, the market supervisor said the contents of upbitfxexchange.com as well as information and documents available to it aided its decision to investigate the platform.