Norbert Bindner, fake investment, fraud, cirminal Torres Vedras Torres Vedras

"Dr." Norbert Rudolf Bindner was born in Bavaria, Germany on 5/6/1952. Bindner has been married four times, most recently to a Brazilian citizen, Dulce Ferreira Dos Santos (b. 3/4/1980). He has three children, a son from his first marriage and a daughter from both his second and third marriages. He has resided in Germany, Portugal and Switzerland and currently appears to travel between the three. Dilitas found no indication of whether the title ‘Dr.’ that Bindner uses is legitimate or not. Bindner’s active social media presence is restricted to a 15-month-old LinkedIn account, although a previous account has been deleted. Recent posts include vocal and exceptionally crude and immature criticisms of Russian politics and ranting about the conflict in Gaza, which descends into Islamophobia at points. Since this LinkedIn account was created, it has only had interaction from one person, with one post leaving a ‘like’. This is very unusual given Bindner’s alleged profession and network. A review of the LinkedIn page of the person that gave a ‘like’ revealed another questionable bland page with little to no activity, also claiming to be involved in investments. 

Professional Background and Career

Bindner has been active in the world of business since the 1970’s. He was reportedly one of several German businessmen who began working in Portugal during that decade. He has purportedly held business interests in Italy, Switzerland, Germany, Portugal, Russia and Brazil, albeit this information has not been substantiated. Bindner was a partner of Nils Pieter Sieger, a well-known figure in the German-Portuguese business community. Sieger has been active in Germany and Portugal since 1967 and positions himself as an ‘international economic consultant’ and philanthropist. He has provided support to several generations of businessman looking to network in Portugal, and advised large development and infrastructure projects in Europe, Africa and the Middle East.

To some, Sieger is seen as a respected figure, but there are many accusations that he is corrupt and engages in fraudulent business practices, open scams and even criminal behaviour, including related to his charity work. Sieger’s Finurba Group too has a mixed reputation, being very successful but also known to take exorbitant fees for work with small businesses. Upon investigation of Siegers online presence, we revealed several instances of known search engine optimisation (SEO) tactics used to combat negative search engine results. Typically, an SEO specialist will set about creating as much self- written positive content mentioning a client as possible - in the form of blog webpage articles - in a bid to push negative content away from the first several pages of a search when their client’s name is browsed. Negative content on a Google search for Sieger appears following the first couple of pages. It is not clear to what extent Sieger and Bindner’s relationship was a formal business one or a friendship, but they appear to have been involved in unscrupulous and sometimes criminal activity together (detailed below).

Bindner’s online footprint in recent years is almost completely absent. This is suspicious for someone who purports to be a successful and wealthy businessman. Few active and thriving businesses operate today without an online presence. However, Bindner is not currently clearly linked to any business, organisation or project. It is difficult to determine Bindner’s wealth, but any claim he has made should be taken with extreme suspicion. Alleged Wrongdoing Bindner was allegedly previously involved in fraud, confidence scams, and illicit loan and investment deals in Portugal. We have discovered archived unofficial webpages that detail wrongdoing by Bindner and his associates in Portugal across several years. Reportedly, a favoured modus operandi was to present himself as a successful businessman who had, through no fault of his own, a cashflow issue. Bindner would then garner loans from acquaintances and connections made through his friends, often businessmen, on the pretence that money would be returned once Bindner’s ‘issue’ had been resolved. 

Bindner often relied on genuine activity to substantiate his claims, e.g. an ongoing bank takeover would be given as the reason why his accounts were frozen and he could not access his capital. In other cases, Bindner reportedly even provided false documentation to aid his stories. At times, Bindner would seek loans in relatively low amounts, sometimes only a few hundred Euros. Other schemes involved concocting fake investment schemes which he would use to attract investors and convince them to hand over larger sums. In every case, Bindner would promise repayment or returns that would never materialise. Many of Bindner’s victims appear to have simply given up chasing him for their money after a certain amount of time. Dilitas has viewed various anecdotes that point to a pattern of victims being lured in by a hard-luck story and repeated assurances that repayment would be coming in the near future.

Like other confidence tricksters, Bindner would employ name dropping and false documentation, even stretching to fabricating emails and official correspondence from financial bodies. Bindner, at times, appears to have had the aid of a Portuguese lawyer, Daniel Lobo Antunes, who would provide false correspondence to ‘prove’ his claims to those who loaned him amounts. It is possible that this lawyer was also ignorant of Bindner’s activity and unaware of the scheme. It is alleged that Nils Pieter Sieger was involved in these schemes, that he introduced individuals to Bindner and then took a commission on the loans Bindner received. Bindner and Sieger supposedly acted to have complaints against them removed, threatening court proceedings against those who challenged them. In addition, there are archived references to Bindner and his activities on websites that were dedicated to recording scams and fraudulent schemes as warnings to others. These websites have been taken down in recent years for hosting ‘defamatory content’, removing many of the records of Bindner’s illicit activity.

Due to the above activity, Bindner has also been previously linked to criminal fraudsters. He reportedly held a brief connection with jailed Italian fraudster, Aldo Pietro Ferrari, and notorious British conman, Mark Acklom. It is not clear when Bindner began operating these schemes but there are accusations he was running them until at least around 2010. The advent of the mass-internet era and the ability to immediately verify information has perhaps made this manner of scam more difficult to achieve. In recent years, there is little to no record of Bindner’s activity, legitimate or otherwise. Remarkably, Bindner appears to have been able to avoid serious consequences for his alleged litany of misdeeds. Again, there are unsubstantiated allegations that Bindner faced court on several occasions and that he served a jail sentence for fraud in Portugal in the 1970s. Bindner is alleged to have had one case in a local court in Germany closed due to lack of evidence and another resulting in a suspended jail sentence. We have not been able to find evidence of these events, in part, due to Germany’s strict laws surrounding legal records. However, if there are currently legal questions surrounding Bindner, his stated reluctance to travel by plane could be down to a desire to avoid the passport checks necessary on entering certain jurisdictions. 

In addition, the target subject in this matter has been discreetly assessed by us well- placed assets on the ground in both Germany and Portugal. The assessment of the assets is that there is no question in their mind that Bindner is a ‘professional conman and fraudster’, who has gone out of his way to ‘launder’ his past misdeeds. This aligns with the overall conclusion of us, that Bindner is currently attempting to present a clean reputation and avoid wider knowledge of his past. It is the opinion of some of our analysts that Bindner’s own online presence has had a significant amount of ‘professional cleaning’ carried out over time. This is suspected to be in the form of having professional hackers directly remove content from sites known to have pages populated with negative content. This is a very expensive exercise indeed. It is also concerning that no photo or image could be found of the subject anywhere online. Given the alleged philanthropic activities Bindner has stated, one would have thought he would appear in some photographs somewhere, making donations or visiting locations where monies had been used. Conclusion Norbert Bindner is a fraudster and to be avoided.

It is our recommendation that the Client should not engage in a business transaction with him. Bindner has a long history of suspect behaviour and while this has not been substantiated with an in-depth investigation, the many suggestions of wrongdoing and accusations of illegality, without firm evidence to the contrary, are enough to raise serious concerns as to the viability of Bindner as a partner and the reliability of his character. Any claim made by Bindner towards owning great wealth and any proof of funds he produces must be treated with great suspicion. Given his alleged track-record, it is likely he is an experienced and successful conman, who is used to carrying out confidence scams and fabricating evidence when necessary. Not only would engaging with Bindner carry a strong risk of the Client being drawn into an undesirable arrangement, potentially resulting in financial loss, but there is also an added risk of reputational damage involved in dealing with an individual who has clearly upset many other individuals and businesses in the past.