First of all, Lars Windhorst, investor and majority owner of the Bundesliga soccer club Hertha BSC Berlin, made it look like a success: "Today, with the approval of the Federal Financial Supervisory Authority (" BaFin "), I paid back deposits totaling 132.5 million euros, the receipt of which, in the opinion of the #BaFin, would have required a permit under the German Banking Act (KWG). Shortly afterwards, Windhorst followed up with another tweet: “I am pleased that I was able to reverse the deposits with the approval of #BaFin. With the reversal, the legal disputes with BaFin are resolved,that are pending before the courts. ”That reads like the best of agreement, especially because Windhorst is referring to the“ approval ”of the financial supervisory authority. However, a BaFin spokeswoman spoke clearly differently - namely of an "order".

Markus Frühauf

Editor in business.

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Gustav Theile

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At the end of May, the Windhorst authority, which was criticized in the Wirecard debacle, reported to the Berlin public prosecutor's office for violating the KWG. Whether the public prosecutor will now stop the investigation depends on her. The complaint against Windhorst then related to the initial suspicion of a violation of the KWG. The legal disputes, which Windhorst did not explain in more detail in the tweet, are likely to relate to the disputes with BaFin regarding the order to repay the deposits. A KWG license for banking is also necessary for accepting deposits, as is the case for granting loans. But Windhorst does not own this. It can be assumed that he came up short against BaFin before the administrative court. That he is now selling it as "approval from BaFin",the supervisory authority is unlikely to want to agree to this.

Windhorst has been under great pressure in the past few months.

In the summer, a payment to Hertha BSC was received a few days late.

In between there was even talk of a seizure.

At the end of last week, a Dutch court declared Windhorst's investment company Tennor Holding BV bankrupt.

An insolvency administrator was also appointed.

According to a spokesman, Tennor appealed the decision.

The holding company is not insolvent and has reached an out-of-court settlement with the applicant.

Windhorst then wrote on Twitter: "Contrary to other reports, Tennor is not insolvent."