Austrian FMA Adds Green Bonds Investment Scam to Warning List

This Friday morning, in the heart of a freezing Vienna, Austria’s financial regulators, the Financial Market Authority (FMA), released a statement on to the world wide web that says Ortner Marcus, a company which claims it can provide investment services, is not to be trusted.

Why is it not to be trusted? Because friend, the people behind the company have been trying to offer services for which they require a regulatory license, a license, I am afraid to say, which they do not have.

According to Ortner Marcus' website, the company is in fact regulated in the United Kingdom. But the Companies House registration number, which is listed on the company’s Financial Conduct Authority (FCA) licensing page, does not match with a corresponding firm on the Companies House database.

In fact, only one firm called Ortner Marcus exists on the Companies House database, and it provides advertising services. Moreover, the company listed on the FCA’s website is not actually regulated by the FCA. Instead, it appears to be regulated by the Austrian ministry of labor.

Green Scam

The company says that it deals in green bond investments and global markets trading. All of the site’s copy is written in a Windows 2000-style font and one feels rather nostalgic perusing through its pages.

As with scam websites, the Ortner Marcus website is suspiciously empty of any meaningful contact details. There is no indication as to who the company’s executive team is, who actually owns the company or where its headquarters are.

The company claims that it has an office in Vienna but, given that the FMA added the firm to its warning list and says that it's not permitted to provide services in the country, that seems doubtful.

Our advice? Steer clear of these wind-farm selling hucksters; they are likely up to no good.