The Dark Side of P2P Lending: My Interview with P2P Empire

Jakub Krejci invited me onto P2P Unscripted, his interview series on P2P Empire. We talked for about 75 minutes: the red flags investors ignore, what regulation actually covers, as well as my experience dealing with regulators.

Source: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ixRWw4Ndrec

What we covered

• 0:56 How I ended up investigating P2P platforms
• 5:14 Motives, and the theory that I was paid a quarter million in Bitcoin
• 10:15 The most shocking find
• 14:13 Why investors wave away critical information
• 18:22 Does regulation protect investors?
• 23:16 Regulated platforms, unregulated assets
• 28:51 Monitoring platforms and getting out in time
• 35:11 What dealing with regulators is actually like
• 44:39 Why platforms keep raising money after critical reports
• 50:45 What influencers owe their audience
• 54:08 Telling bad judgment from ignored red flags
• 56:13 Can affiliate-funded research be independent?
• 1:04:18 Getting your money back when a platform fails
• 1:09:46 How to protect yourself before you invest

Source: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ixRWw4Ndrec

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We also covered how investors actually got money back from failed platforms, from a lawyer-led group action to one Crowdestor investor who went after the borrowers himself. That part starts at 1:04:18.

Source: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ixRWw4Ndrec&t=3858s (at 1:04:18)

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Two corrections to what I said on air

Recoveries (1:04:45)

I mixed up the two cases. In Envestio, about EUR 15.3 million had already gone to businesses that turned out to be empty, dissolved, or owned by people with nothing left. Investors put up EUR 200,000 to fund the trustee. Costs have reached EUR 745,000 and EUR 1.16 million has come back into the estate, with nothing paid out yet. In Kuetzal, the company’s frozen bank money paid for the recovery work, and creditors got back about 38% of their recognised claims. The details are in my article on how the Envestio and Kuetzal recoveries worked.

Sources: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ixRWw4Ndrec&t=3885s (at 1:04:45); https://www.karsten.me/money/envestio-kuetzal-magnusson-recovery/

Paysera (38:42)

In the video I said “the next day they froze the funds.” The real timeline might have been a bit longer: After Bafin ordered Ventus to stop taking deposits and repay investors and published the order on 18 May, I emailed it to Paysera, with the Bank of Lithuania’s case handler in copy. I sent it on the evening of 20 May, Seattle time, when it was already 21 May in Lithuania. On 25 May, Ventus told lenders that Paysera had restricted outgoing payments from its accounts. Technically that means it could have been up to 4 days later rather than the next day – Ventus didn’t specifically disclose on which day the freeze took place.

Sources: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ixRWw4Ndrec&t=2322s (at 38:42); https://www.bafin.de/SharedDocs/Veroeffentlichungen/DE/Verbrauchermitteilung/unerlaubte/2026/meldung_2026_05_18_ventus_energy_group.html; author’s email to Paysera, 20 May 2026; https://www.karsten.me/money/ventus-energy-what-happens-next/