A first criminal complaint was filed in the canton of Basel-Landschaft, after the Basel company Prime Energy Cleantech announced its upcoming bankruptcy to its investors.
Among these are hundreds of French-speaking people who have subscribed to bonds with this company specializing in photovoltaic panels. The complaint concerns several million francs invested in Prime Energy Cleantech which may never be recovered following the announcement of the debacle, a source close to the matter told the AWP agency. When contacted, the Basel-Landschaft Criminal Court did not wish to confirm or deny this information.
The company, which has a storefront in Geneva, announced its bankruptcy by email to its investors on October 18, several French-speaking media revealed on Thursday. To finance its investments in photovoltaic installations in Europe, it previously issued so-called “green” bonds to individuals.
With Swiss explorer Bertrand Piccard as ambassador, Prime Energy Cleantech has sparked enthusiasm among hundreds of savers, who now feel they have been cheated. “The majority of them have invested tens, even hundreds of thousands of francs. Some have even lost a good part of their retirement,” Jérôme Fontana told AWP, who, with other investors, formed a group support on WhatsApp and Facebook, with the aim of organizing the reaction of victims.
“We have already collected quite a bit of data and we estimate that the bonds issued amount, for the moment, to around 10 million francs. The shares reach between 2 and 5 million francs,” he explains, while considering himself lucky to have purchased only one bond, at a price of 10,000 francs.
Investors, who are increasing in number every day through social networks, come from French-speaking Switzerland, but also from France. In their comments, they express their concerns and ask for explanations.
“No member of management, nor the main shareholder of Prime Energy Cleantech, Laurin Fäh, gave us more information,” laments Mr. Fontana. According to him, the fact that the company has not yet organized a meeting with its shareholders and investors “raises all suspicions”.
In the email addressed to investors and seen by AWP, the company explains that the majority shareholder, affiliated companies as well as parties close to this shareholder have become decisive debtors, currently experiencing “financial difficulties and no longer able to cope to their obligations.
As a result, the company’s cash and liquidity were “severely affected.”
Loans against the law
“Management was aware of these excessive loans, or turned a blind eye, since they had been identified as contrary to the code of obligations in a PWC audit report dating from 2022,” wonders Mr. Fontana, who would like clarification from Khalid Belgmimi, the Chief Executive Officer (CEO).
In this document, we can see that the loans granted to the shareholder and to related companies increased from 37.3 million at the end of June 2021 to 70.5 million at the end of 2022. PCW notes that the loan of 19.5 million granted to the shareholder despite the lack of available reserves “represents a prohibited restitution of capital within the meaning of art. 680 al. 2 of the Code of Obligations”.
Contacted, Laurin Fäh, refuses to take responsibility for the debacle: “The loan in question was subsequently guaranteed and therefore complies with the law. I repaid 3.2 million in cash and more than 6 million in form of compensation,” he relates. He further maintains that 6 million would have been re-injected into a company of the Prime Energy group in Portugal, at the instigation of Mr. Belgmimi, “a long-time friend”.
“Shared” errors
“I may not have done everything right, but I’m not the only one who made mistakes,” he concedes. He criticizes Mr. Belgmimi in particular for not having sold the group’s buildings last year, from which he could have drawn cash.
The problem also comes from the Financial Market Supervisory Authority (Finma) which blocked the issuance of bonds, according to him. “Finma also noted serious misconduct on the part of Mr. Belgmimi,” he confides.
Questioned on the subject, Bertrand Piccard, for his part, affirms “to maintain his confidence” in the CEO. He highlights Prime Energy’s subsidiaries continue to bring profits to the company. “The assets also seem to be able to be mobilized. This should make it possible to gradually repay investors.”
Mr. Piccard, who is himself a shareholder and investor, is nevertheless surprised that Mr. Fäh was able to “draw very large sums for his personal use, without reaction from the supervisory body.”
The Prime Energy group, parent company of Prime Energy Cleantech, is located throughout Europe and has around fifteen companies dedicated to solar power plants, operating around a hundred of these installations in Switzerland and on the continent. He also owns around ten real estate firms.
This article was automatically published. Sources: ats/awp