What’s Going on with Peer to Peer Lender Grupeer?

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A couple of months ago Grupeer, a peer to peer lender ostensibly based in Latvia, shut-down all lending and allegedly halted all investor redemptions. In multiple statements, Grupeer management claimed the COVID-19 pandemic had harmed its ability to operate.

At the end of March, Grupeer founder and CEO Alla Kisika stated:

“… we are forced to inform you that in the current circumstances it is not possible for us to continue operations as before with an objective cause out of our control. Therefore, we hereby notify you that all payments to investors of Grupeer are currently suspended due to emergency state declared in European Union and worldwide regarding COVID-19 pandemic crises.”

Later in April, Grupeer asked for “understanding and reasonable behaviour” from platform investors as allegedly some investors had made threats directed towards the company.

Investors, of course, just want their money back.

Kisika later returned to the company blog to ensure investors that “Grupeer plans to continue to work hard to overcome all difficulties.” But due to the Coronavirus, the “process will be much more complicated than expected.”

At the end of April, Grupeer predicted that platform “stabilization” may take up to two years. The company urged investors “not to lose trust in the platform’s continued operations and the safety of their investments.”

Earlier today, Grupeer made another announcement claiming they had “resolved technical issues regarding balance status in the Investor’s cabinet.” Kisika stated:

“The investors who tried to withdraw financial means from their Grupeer’s account after 31st of March might have experienced the issue. It was caused by the error with a link from Grupeer platform systems to financial tools and bank accounts, which are frozen. In the next few days we will restore information of the balance status that was effective till 31st of March, 2020. However, for the projects that have been completed after 31st of March full calculations and procedure of withdrawals will be available in June along with the action plan for the investors.”

On May 20th, Kisiki posted an apology of sorts on YouTube that attempted to provide exculpatory reasons as to why Grupeer has struggled to maintain operations. Grupeer expects to announce an action plan for the repayment of investments at some point in June.

On the other side of the equation are the borrowers and lenders. The lenders (investors) are not very pleased, as one would expect. Enter the Grupeer Armada.

A website has been created that is seeking to coordinate any action that may be taken against Grupeer and its principles. According to the website, investigations allege that the P2P platform is a scam. To quote the allegations posted by the Armada:

There is additional information publicly available on the Armada website.

The Armada is advocating legal action on behalf of impacted investors with a core group of Armada members helping to coordinate the move. With the exception of an individual called “PeerDuck,” who apparently has experience in detecting scams, each individual has been impacted by the shutdown of Grupeer. PeerDuck is active on Twitter commenting on the shortcomings of various peer to peer lenders. An interview from April claims the Duck has helped to previously “bring down 4 P2P sites”.