Thirty-seven days after Bafin ordered Ventus Energy to stop accepting funds and repay German investors immediately, the company announced court-supervised restructuring in Estonia. The investors will not be repaid immediately.
On the evening of June 11, 2026, Ventus Energy Group OÜ sent an email to all lenders announcing what amounts to a controlled shutdown. No new loans. Interest payments suspended. Early Exit frozen. A repayment plan to be delivered by July 10. A lender Zoom call scheduled for June 16.
Here is the full text of the email, as received by lenders:
Source: https://www.karsten.me/sources/ventus-energy-restructuring-email-2026-06-11/
Dear community,
Due to a combination of significant regulatory, banking, and operational challenges have materially affected the Company’s ability to continue operating under normal conditions.
In particular:
- The German financial regulator (BaFin) has ordered the Company to cease accepting funds from German residents and to implement a repayment and wind-down framework for affected lenders.
- The Company’s payment and banking arrangements have been severely disrupted, limiting its ability to process payments and fulfil obligations in the ordinary course of business.
- The Company has faced targeted disruptive activities that have negatively affected its operations, resulting in criminal proceedings being initiated in Estonia in relation to part of those activities.
After reviewing these circumstances, the shareholders concluded that the most responsible course of action is to preserve the value of the Company’s assets, maintain operational continuity, seek court-supervised restructuring protection, and pursue an orderly monetisation of the Company’s energy portfolio. The objective is to maximise recoveries and ensure fair treatment of all lenders while avoiding a disorderly insolvency process that could significantly reduce overall recoveries.
Given the circumstances described above, and in order to protect the interests of all lenders, an urgent shareholders’ resolution was convened, at which the following actions were agreed upon:
- Cease accepting any new loans through the platform.
- Suspend all new interest payouts and capitalise all accrued interest going forward.
- Suspend Early Exit functionality. Amounts already collected for pending Early Exit requests will be processed and credited to the respective lenders’ wallet balances while pending Early Exit requests for which collection had not yet commenced shall be cancelled and returned to the relevant project balances.
- Repay, as soon as reasonably practicable withdrawals from lenders’ Ventus Energy wallet, subject to the Company’s payment institution compliance requirements and restructuring procedures.
- To commence restructuring and protection procedures under Estonian law in accordance with the provisions of the Estonian Bankruptcy Act (Pankrotiseadus) and the Estonian Reorganisation Act (Saneerimisseadus).
- Designate, as the primary mechanism for fulfilling obligations towards lenders, the structured sale of the Company’s assets and operational portfolio segments, including Heat & Electricity, Wind & BESS, Solar & BESS, and other energy infrastructure assets. The Management Board has been instructed to immediately initiate asset sale and monetisation processes. The repayment plan will also include options for completing energy projects currently in the development phase, with the objective of maximising their value and thereby fully satisfying the Company’s obligations towards lenders.
- To instruct the Management Board to prepare a comprehensive repayment plan covering lenders from all jurisdictions, including indicative repayment scenarios, implementation steps and projected timelines, and to submit such plan to the Shareholders for approval no later than 10 July 2026.
- The Company’s highest priority in the repayment plan and future operations shall be the full repayment of obligations owed to lenders.
- To instruct the Management Board to ensure regular and transparent communication with lenders regarding the progress of the process, including providing lenders, no later than the first week of July 2026, with a more detailed report on the Company’s next steps, potential repayment scenarios and indicative timelines.
Notice from the Management Team
Thank you for all the support we have received so far.
We are fully committed to making every possible effort to recover the funds that have been invested in building and acquiring our energy portfolio.
Until the banking situation is resolved, we plan to publish frequent updates.
We will also provide updates on the restructuring process and potential asset sales at least once a month. However, to minimise the risk of interference from unrelated or uninvolved parties, we will refrain from disclosing the identities of potential buyers or other active leads until binding agreements have been signed.
We understand that this is a lot to take in. We are devastated and frustrated, just as many of you are. Nevertheless, we must move forward and focus on recovering your investments.
We are sure that you will have many questions. Please send them to <e-mail redacted>. As always, we will hold a lenders’ Zoom call on Tuesday, 16 June 2026, at 18:00 CET to answer where possible.
Thank you for your trust and support,
Henrijs Jansons, Janis Timma
and
Ventus Energy team
What restructuring means
Restructuring under Estonian law (Saneerimisseadus) is not bankruptcy. It is the Estonian equivalent of Chapter 11 in the US: the company keeps operating under court supervision while it tries to reorganize its debts and sell assets. Management stays in control, subject to court oversight.
If the restructuring fails, the next step is formal insolvency (Pankrotiseadus), where a court-appointed trustee takes over. For context: Crowdestor, Timma’s previous platform, is effectively defunct, with 69% of its EUR 41.2M loan book in recovery as of late 2025.
The Bafin problem
On May 5, 2026, Bafin ordered Ventus Energy to cease unauthorized deposit-taking and repay accepted funds immediately. The order was “sofort vollziehbar” (immediately enforceable).
The restructuring creates a direct conflict with that order. Estonian court supervision stays creditor claims during restructuring proceedings. Bafin ordered immediate repayment; the Estonian court will decide the timeline. A German administrative order does not automatically bind an Estonian court.
One has to wonder if this is the regulatory arbitrage that Estonian domicile was always designed to provide. Raise tens of millions from retail investors across Europe, register as an Estonian “web portal” with EUR 4,166 in share capital, and when the German regulator catches up, file for restructuring in Tallinn.
Were they already insolvent?
The question is not whether Ventus had to act. They did. Under Estonian law (Commercial Code § 180(5¹)), an OÜ management board must file within 20 days of recognizing insolvency. Anything else would be the Estonian equivalent of Insolvenzverschleppung.
Source: https://www.sorainen.com/publications/wrongful-trading-estonia/
The question is when they became insolvent. Consider the timeline:
- May 5: Bafin orders cessation and immediate repayment.
- May 12: Ventus says it received the Bafin order.
- May 13: Ventus pauses German lending, framing it as a voluntary decision taken in “constructive dialogue with relevant regulatory stakeholders.”
- May 19: Early Exit backlog stands at EUR 1.8 million, per investor tracking posted in P2P Telegram groups.
- May 25: Paysera freezes outgoing payments. Ventus confirms the restriction in a lender email. Operational bank accounts for the heat and electricity business are also affected.
- May 30: Early Exit backlog reaches EUR 5.6 million, per the same tracking.
- June 11: Restructuring announced.
Sources: https://www.bafin.de/SharedDocs/Veroeffentlichungen/EN/Verbrauchermitteilung/unerlaubte/2026/meldung_2026_05_18_ventus_energy_group_en.html; https://t.me/die_p2p_macher_de/14077; https://t.me/die_p2p_macher_de/13675; https://t.me/MR_Money_Rain/7991; https://www.karsten.me/money/ventus-energy-what-happens-next/
A company that cannot process outgoing payments because its payment processor froze its accounts may already be unable to pay its debts as they come due. That was May 25. The restructuring announcement came 17 days later. Management’s 20-day window under Estonian law closes on June 14.
Whether the insolvency was recognizable even earlier is a question for the courts.
Criminal proceedings
The restructuring email includes this line: “The Company has faced targeted disruptive activities that have negatively affected its operations, resulting in criminal proceedings being initiated in Estonia in relation to part of those activities.”
No case number. No named suspect. No named court. No named prosecutor. No named crime.
Ventus.energy: still open for business
As of June 11, 2026, the ventus.energy website shows no restructuring notice. None. The sign-up form is active. The “For lenders” page still advertises “daily interest payouts” and “Early Exit feature.” The risks page is dated August 2024 and mentions no regulatory actions.
Sources: https://ventus.energy/; https://ventus.energy/for-lenders
A prospective investor visiting ventus.energy today would see a functioning investment platform offering returns of up to 20% with daily payouts and an exit feature. They would not see the Bafin order, the Latvijas Banka warning, the Paysera freeze, the EUR 5 million Early Exit backlog, or the restructuring filing. All of that information was communicated only to existing lenders.
Devon and Asterra
Devon Funding and Asterra Estate are White Label Solutions (WLS) platforms built on what appears to be the same legal framework as Ventus: Estonian-domiciled, unregulated, loan-agreement-based. Toms Abele, CEO of WLS, stated in 2025 that Devon uses a similar structure to Ventus. For Asterra, the evidence is more circumstantial: same technology provider, same domicile, same absence of licensing.
Sources: https://t.me/c/2498997367/42489; https://t.me/c/2498997367/78
If the contract structures match, the Bafin analysis that classified Ventus as unauthorized deposit-taking would likely apply.
All three platforms offer an “Early Exit” feature that lets lenders request early repayment before a loan matures. Early Exit is not a withdrawal. It requires another investor to take over the position. When a platform is healthy, these requests match quickly. When they don’t, the backlog is a liquidity signal. Devon’s Early Exit backlog stands at EUR 783,000, up 121% in seven days. Asterra’s is at EUR 392,000, up 203% over the same period.
Source: https://t.me/die_p2p_macher_de/15074
What comes next
A lender Zoom call is scheduled for Tuesday, June 16, 2026, at 18:00 CET. A repayment plan is due to shareholders by July 10.
The restructuring will succeed or fail based on whether Ventus’s energy assets are worth what the platform claims. The published investigation documented that the Dambis biomass plant (SIA Eco Energy Riga) reported EUR 88,000 in net profit in 2024; investors paid EUR 6.36 million for it. The question has always been whether the assets are worth the paper. We are about to find out.
Previous coverage: Ventus Energy: What Happens Next
Disclosure: I filed a complaint with Bafin in December 2025 that most likely led to the May 2026 enforcement order. I hold no financial position in any Ventus-related entity and have received no compensation for this work.
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