The Dutch financial markets regulator AFM has fined two men for promoting an illegal asset manager over a period of several years, netting themselves a payment of 10% of every invested amount.

One man, Mories van de Venne, promoted the unlicenced company Grinta Invest via trade names Venno Trading, Venno Art and e-Forex, promising investors a return of 4% a month. He was fined €544,000, said to be roughly equivalent to his earnings.

A second man, Koen Nieuwenhuijs, was fined €256,000 euro. He promoted Grinta Invest under the names Slapend Geld Verdienen, Spaaralternatieven and Arb Trade Invest, the AFM said on Thursday.

Grinta Invest vanished from the grid in 2021 and in November that year, the AFM issued a warning about the company.

In June this year another man was fined €620,000 for promoting the same firm, in what the AFM said was its first fine for a “finfluencer”.

Influencers – people who are paid to promote goods and services via social media – should, have an AFM licence to promote financial products.  Consumers should always check they are dealing with licenced brokers, the AFM said, “particularly if the offer appears to be too good to be true.”