On December 7, 2025, three of the German-speaking P2P community’s most prominent influencers sat down for their first joint livestream. Lars Wrobbel (Passives Einkommen mit P2P), Thomas Butz (P2P-Game), and Andreas “Holly” Hollmotz (DividendenBackpacker) spent over an hour fielding questions from their audience, collectively representing over EUR 1 million in P2P investments.
My investigation into Ventus Energy had been published days earlier, documenting doctored PDFs, self-dealing at multiples of fair value, and an unlicensed platform that had collected EUR 65.8 million from retail investors. The livestream’s most-anticipated segment: Are we staying invested in Ventus? (“Bleiben wir bei Ventus investiert?”)
45K and buying the dip
Holly was unequivocal. His target had been EUR 30,000 in Ventus. He’d overshot:
My target was 30,000. I’ve been aggressive, I’m at 45K now, I even used this current situation to invest more. [translated]
He’d read my article. His verdict: trust in Ventus was “completely there”. On Jānis Timma, Crowdestor’s former head of operations who controls the asset-owning companies behind Ventus, Holly went further:
Without him, I’d go so far as to claim the whole thing wouldn’t work. He’s a genius. [translated]
All three influencers agreed: they were staying in. The audience heard a unified message.
The shares he “forgot” to mention
The livestream also addressed the influencer equity stakes my investigation had uncovered. Holly acknowledged holding 0.1% of Ventus Employee and Partnerships Stock Options OÜ (17067652), the vehicle through which seven influencers received shares. He conceded he probably should have disclosed this:
Maybe I should apologize for not having mentioned it in my videos. [translated]
You think?
Twelve weeks later: the quiet exit
Holly runs a Telegram channel “Dividenden Backpacker” with 5,714 subscribers.
On February 28, 2026 he had a new message for them:
As part of my risk management, I have reduced an existing position. This adjustment was made as part of my individual portfolio strategy and concerns exclusively my personal portfolio. It constitutes neither investment advice nor a buy or sell recommendation. [translated]
That’s an interesting message. No platform named. No reason given. Just “an existing position,” reduced. The portfolio figures attached to the message told the rest of the story: EUR 10,750 invested, down from the EUR 45,000 he’d trumpeted twelve weeks earlier.
But it’s not just the content that was unusual. Also the tone didn’t sound like him. Compare it to how he usually phrases his updates. Here’s a post from a few weeks earlier:
Bondora really delivered in 2025: over 428.6 million EUR invested, average deposit per investor: over 5,200 EUR, more than 40,000 new users. I’m sticking with it: since my last update I’ve invested another 11,000 EUR and I’m letting my money keep working for me. 👉New customers get a 20 EUR bonus exclusively with my link [translated]
Someone has been talking to their lawyer.
The video goes dark
Holly didn’t just update his Telegram, though. Back in October 2025 he had posted a YouTube video where he announced having invested EUR 30,000 into Ventus:
As of March 22nd, 2026, that video has gone dark:
You can still find an archived still of the page on archive.org that shows the original title (archives of YouTube videos are wonky, but the title is there). The video itself, where Holly promoted Ventus to his 23,400 subscribers without disclosing his equity stake, is gone.
What changed?
Between December 7 and late February, Holly went from “trust is completely there” and “Timma is a genius” to quietly liquidating roughly 75% of his position and scrubbing his promotional video.
He offered no public explanation, no acknowledgment of the investigation’s findings, no update to his audience about the equity stake he’d conceded he should have disclosed.
More importantly: Ventus only allows its investors to withdraw funds if they can find another investor to take over the investment. So while viewers saw the video of Holly proclaiming an additional investment that pushed his position to EUR 45,000, he quietly used the interest he drummed up to exit his own position on the platform.
Class act.