Gert BASTEN, born March 18,1948, purports to operate CASA REI Immobilienverwaltung GmbH in Vienna, Austria as a family office that manages in excess of EUR 70 billion in assets of primarily German families, largely in the form of real estate holdings but since 2009 also in precious metals. Claiming an exceptionally stable and consistent record of returns, BASTEN claims to be seeking extremely low-risk investment opportunities.in the instant case, he offered to provide financing in the amount of EUR 55 million secured by a pledge of a Goldman Sachs bond as collateral. The party seeking said EUR 55 million financing was a licensed and regulated insurance brokerage and investment advisory firm in Vienna. The funds were to be used for the payment of a monthly premium of EUR 940,000 on a 7-year multi-party whole life insurance policy of Vienna Insurance Group for EUR 80 million that would have returned EUR 91.25 million after seven years. BASTEN submitted a Letter of Interest to the insurer based on which extensive preparatory work was done and the policy was issued. The party seeking financing paid EUR 150,000 for the availability as collateral of the Goldman Sachs bond held by a Swiss bank for one of its customers. The party seeking financing further caused payment to BASTEN of an up-front fee in compliance with his October 7 invoice in the amount of EUR 18,000. An Austrian special purpose company was formed at BASTEN’s request with the advice of counsel. Overall out-of-pocket expenses including time charges and professional fees accrued in the amount of $896,500 or 1.63% of the amount of financing sought. However, BASTEN defaulted on his Letter of Interest and failed to provide any financing. Vienna Insurance Group cancelled their policy for failure to pay in December. On January 9 the party seeking EUR 55 million financing from BASTEN / CASA REI Immobilienverwaltung GmbH filed criminal charges for aggravated fraud with the Vienna Public Prosecutor's Office under case number 34St284/11x (prosecutor in charge: Mag. Weisskopf) and testified before the Vienna State Police for Economic Crimes. It has appeared since that no less than seven (7) fraud complaints have been filed with the same prosecutor's office, all of which are pending. On information and belief, BASTEN has, among numerous other cases, also fraudulently caused a bond issue through an Austrian bank resulting in damages exceeding EUR 1 million to the purchasers of said bonds. BASTEN does appear to have some legitimate investment advisory clients but he does not, in fact, have significant assets "under management", much less millions or billions as he stated publicly on numerous occasions. It appears that BASTEN maintains an operational base in Slovakia less than 50 miles from Vienna. He does this for tax reasons and to render prosecution and discovery more difficult.
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