This is an important article on the fraudulent activities by the tax advisory service Steuermaus. The article was written by Dr. Carol van Buren. If you’ve been tricked by Steuermaus, read on!
While browsing through posts on Facebook, I came across one which caught my attention. It concerned a company called Steuermaus. I had already seen that name mentioned earlier by a member of Berlin4Beginners. She’d used them to claim Soforthilfe. They had applied for more than she wanted and she was looking for a way to return the money. I had never heard of Steuermaus before this but I did wonder quietly to myself, what possible help they could have provided in submitting a very simple online application? I thought no more about it – until I saw another post about Steuermaus and read some of the comments. I was intrigued and decided to do some research.
This is what I found out …
In 2012, someone called Alexander Gurny registered a company in Berlin called Smallfunds GmbH. He then set up a Ponzi scheme promising investors a return of 30.22%. When investors finally rumbled that Herr Gurny was a conman and that they had been defrauded of millions of euros, they reported him. In 2013, the Berlin Public Prosecutors’ Office (die Staatsanwaltschaft) started investigating Alexander and his friends for serious fraud [case no. 283 Js 1436/13]. They were facing several years in prison!
Despite protesting his innocence, Alexander decided not to take his chances in court. Instead, he and his team fled Germany and spent the next few years living a luxurious life in Dubai – where they started another hedge fund (DUBAI DIREKT FONDS II GmbH & Co. KG) and several other companies . However, it seems the alleged thieves may have had some kind of falling out amongst themselves. This is when Alexander and his co-conspirator / wife Edith Drazba – a.k.a Emilia Greenwood – decided to move to South Africa. In South Africa, Gurny re-invented himself. He was now Drazba-Gurny. He claimed to be a former banker and even created a freelancer profile touting for business – his rate? 13 euros per hour! I checked the profile and it looks like no-one ever hired him despite his impressive credentials. I guess this is when the idea to target new Berliners came to him.
Robbing Peter To Pay Paul
What did Alexander sell to the investors?
He sold them the idea of buying brand new iPads which he would then lease to specialist rental outlets which provided communication applications for conferences. He claimed he had access to thousands of iPads supplied directly from Apple. Investors never actually received or saw the brand new iPads. Instead, they received invoices and various proofs of purchase which included the serial and model numbers of the iPads they had bought. The investors believed that the iPads they paid for had been immediately leased to the rental shops who in turn were renting them out to event organisers to be used at conferences, exhibitions, trainings, software launches, congresses, promotion tours, trade fairs as well as schools & colleges. Alexander claimed to have been doing this kind of business since 2010 and that he was in fact the leading figure in this field.
The rental agreement with the outlets was supposed to run for 18 months, during which time Smallfunds GmbH would transfer 660 euros in rental income to the investors – 110 euros at the beginning of each quarter. At the end of this period, Smallfunds would buy back the equipment – for 430 euros. The return for the investors: 30.22 percent per year.
As with any Ponzi scheme things went well at first (watch the explainer video) but by the end of 2012, people started complaining that they weren’t receiving the promised dividends moreover, Alexander and his team were no longer responding to emails or phone calls. The company he had set up disappeared and when people did manage to reach him he claimed he was abroad and would be traveling for a while.
It should be pointed out that none of the iPads actually existed. The serial numbers were all fake – confirmed by Apple. Basically, Alexander took money from investors for computers which he never possessed. A scam right from the beginning!
The case was reported in the business newspaper, Handelsblatt in 2013.
Steuermaus Business Plan?
- rent a virtual office in Berlin
- exclusively target expat Berliners who don’t speak German or
- are unfamiliar with German laws and/or taxes or
- are looking for an all-inclusive service at an unbeatable, cheap price.
- Offer the target ready-made packages (6 hours = 225 euros; 10 hours = 350 euros). Allow the target the freedom to spend the hours on whichever services s/he chooses. Total flexibility. Everything geared towards the customer, everything made as easy as possible – i.e. the total opposite of a normal German customer experience!
According to their website (which is now offline), Steuermaus have been targeting expat freelancers for “over 5 years”. Yet on LinkedIn, Alexander states that his company was formed in 2016. In any case, however long they may or may not have been operating out of their Berlin mailbox address – apparently they are not trading from there anymore. A message on their website stated: “We have closed our German office as of 15.04.2020. We will re-open on the 31 May 2020 due to relocation within Berlin.” The website is however completely offline.
Steuermaus are not licensed in Germany.
According to some worried and angry people in the Berlin Freelancers group, Steuermaus have stopped responding to emails and phone calls. This S. African privately owned company, which has been providing tax advice and completing tax declarations for foreigners living in Berlin, seems to be following a very familiar pattern.
Who is Alexander Gurny?
Alexander Gurny (formerly Ragow) a.k.a Alexander Drazba-Gurny a.k.a Alexander K.H. DeNiro is an alleged fraudster / fund manager who escaped justice in 2013 by moving first to Dubai then to S. Africa. Read the Company House Entry here.
Alexander currently has 3 LinkedIn profiles.
- He is the CEO of Smallfunds GmbH
- He runs an iPad rental business (21 years and 6 months!) and, is in fact, looking for franchise partners – for someone who claims to be a highly educated, former banker fluent in English, he has made quite a few grammatical / spelling errors.
- He (new name: Alexander K.H. Drazba-Gurny) is the Managing Director of RTMAS PTY LTD (his own private company). According to info he provided on Linkedin, this company was formed 4 years ago (2016) and its purpose is to:
design and deliver quality training solutions to enhance team potential and develop new skills. Our rapidly growing client base spans a wide range of industries and includes SME’s and multi-national corporations.
It is this privately owned S.A. company which is behind Steuermaus.
On his current Facebook profile, he calls himself Alexander K.H. deNiro. Maybe he imagines he’s an Italian gangster, or he’s living in some kind Walter Mitty fantasy world – who knows? According to his profile, he claims to be living in Berlin. If this is the case, it is even more suspicious that he chooses not to register his company here. Maybe the reason for not registering (and the name change) is a fear that the past might raise its ugly, iPad-shaped head?
Sources
Handelsblatt (1/7/2013) https://www.handelsblatt.com/
Die Bewertung (30/11/2013) Here you can read the excuses he made in 2013 when they tracked him down (clue – it wasn’t my fault) https://www.diebewertung.de/
Final Thoughts
I was blown away by what I found just by a quick google search – especially so as I had a friend request from Mr DeNiro on a different social media platform a couple of years ago and I think I may even have accepted it because he seemed like such a nice, friendly, kind, knowledgeable person. It’s disappointing to discover all this.
Their website says they will move to new offices on 31 May 2020. I hope that this post will be of use to anyone who may be considering getting Steuermaus to do their taxes in the future. They are not qualified to do this. If they make a mistake, it is you who will bear the responsibility. Also, ask yourself this – why would anyone need to change their name (and identity) every time they start a new business? I have listed 4 names in this post but no doubt he has used many others.
I just want to point out that not all people moving around all the time are fraudsters.
Okay, I am still on my first name, so I guess I am not as dubious anyway. 😉
This article was very useful. Thanks a lot.
I got almost trapped by them. However, due to a specific context (COVID-19), I decided to suspend my actions.
Today I was going to get in touch with them again, but I found their site was down, and then I found this article through google search. I’m glad I didn’t share any docs with them.
FYI. I had received a reply from someone identified as “Jennifer Kleinsmith” with the following credentials:
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Head of business & tax consulting professions (StFa)
Master of International Taxes
Senior Certified Banker (Bankbetriebswirt)
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I am an expat that runs an ecommerce business in Berlin. It’s impossible to find an english speaking Steuerberater. I almost went to these guys because they were recommended by a few friends, but thank god they were already offline.
Does anyone know of any legitimate english speaking tax advisors in Berlin who can handle international ecommerce sales and integrate with the Debitoor accounting system?
Hey Kathleen,
When worlds collide 🙂 Thank you so much for this thorough investigation! I was with Steuermaus and had an odd experience because they actually got me 3000€ from a client who screwed me over and got me through my citizenship application. I went to them because I had such bad experiences with other accountants in Berlin. But I never bought into their big packages and got way more than I paid for with their “all-inclusive” packages. BUT, they’ve since disappeared and I’m screwed now and although I wasn’t financially taken advantage of, I was taken advantage of. They pushed me hard to buy a big package in January which I couldn’t afford – luckily. Lesson learned. And now to find an accountant to get me out of this mess!
Hi there,
Me and a friend have bought a package and then found out that it was a scam months later, because they refused to do the work. Alexander became very aggressive and started threatening us. We then learned on google reviews that many people had horrible experiences. On facebook, they somehow deleted the negative feedback.
Do you have any tips as to what we can do now?
Also, we had to send a copy of our passport, do you think we should fear for some kind of identity theft?
Many thanks!
An article was published on http://www.redtapetranslation.com, written by Dr. Carol Van Buren (also known as Afropunk). She is administrator of a facebook group called “Berlin4Beginners”. We have been denied the right to reply on the same website by the domain owner (Mrs. Kathleen Parker). Press laws, e.g. in § 10 Act; § 11 Press (1) The responsible editor and the publisher are obliged to print or publish a counter-notification of the person or body affected by a factual statement made. We will therefore publish our counter notification on Steuermaus.com.
1.) Steuerermaus.com had an imprint visible to all visitors in accordance with the Telemedia Act (TMG). In this legal notice, it was clearly recognizable that Steuermaus.com is not a tax consultancy according to the Tax Advisory Act (StBerG). Furthermore, the same context was at the end of every email sent by the Steuermaus.com to any parties. In addition, the above notice was also specified in the terms and conditions. The claim that Steuermaus.com deceived clients by identifying as a tax advisor is simply wrong.
Steuermaus.com was created to help expats in Germany with the complex bureaucracy. The focus was on assisting the expats with the translation of forms and explaining the respective processes. In addition it was a platform for tax advisors to register and connect with potential clients. Of course, there were also questions about tax returns. However, steuermaus.com did not offer active advice in this area. Unfortunately, this activity was borderline, and the Chamber of Tax Advisors (Steuerberaterkammer) warned Steuermaus.com in March 2020 not to offer any tax assistance in the future. For this, Steuermaus.com has signed an injunction. Steuermaus initially deactivated the website to check the legal requirements so that no further misunderstandings occur in the future.
2. The article claims that a certain person would have been active under a false name. This claim is simply wrong. Both persons exist. However, Alexander G. was commissioned to set up the Software programs and was only sporadically involved in the operational business. After successful implementation, he left the company at the turn of 2019/2020. He implemented the concept for us. The hint of his past is wrong in time and content in the article. We received this information from his lawyers. In addition, it has never been proven that he committed a crime in Germany. Dr. Carol Van Buren has poorly researched at this point. The Dubai funds were founded in 2006 and not only after the iPad rental. The funds exist and there are no complaints from customers. On the contrary, the Dubai Funds were the only German funds that were successfully implemented in Dubai with a volume of more than 80 million euros. The Ipad rental was founded in 2011 and not in 2012. Mr. G. was not operational active for private reasons at the time of the alleged offenses. Mr. V. represented him with all powers. We have information that indicates that Mr. Alexander G. was a victim of people with high criminal energy. However, this and other articles violate his personal rights by making unsubstantiated claims. This is character assassination. I am not going into details, as this is not my business.
3. It is alleged that Steuermaus.com may sell or misuse customer data. Steuermaus.com would never sell or misuse data. No cases are known where this happened. Apparently Steuermaus.com is a scam and cheats on customers: We offered and implemented the services; we could not help some customers because information was missing or wrong. Where is the so-called scam here? According to our terms and conditions, we have the right to end the business relationship at any time. A refund of the service paid is then excluded. Every customer has accepted our terms and conditions and was able to read, print or share them clearly on the website at any time. It all does not make any sense being fraudulent for a few thousand euros. Where’s the fraud?
I was wondering why a concept that had been rated well by many clients for two years and was even advertised by some facebook groups suddenly broke into peace’s? Answer: I think at first there were the xenophobic attacks on our reviews on google, then someone linked Alexander G. to Steuermaus.com and finally we rejected some freelancers because of the suspicion of tax evasion. Of course, we also had a few dissatisfied customers, but all companies have that and would never mutate into such a development. Finally, the Chamber of Tax Advisors sent us a warning and articles like http://www.redtapetranslation.com was published. I think the latter is crucial, because one is powerless against shitstorm and the dissemination of false and semi-knowing information. I think that facebook groups have their own interests in selling their business models for expats. We were something like competitors that must be cleared out of the way. Bravo, you did it a good job. I hope you are proud of your actions.
Personal message to those responsible for the shit storm: You have destroyed 6 jobs with your actions. Families with children are affected who no longer have a job because you made unsubstantiated and allegations to the public. It seems to be a sport for you, but for others it was their livelihood. It did not have any impact on me, but for sure, I will not continue this website.
As the domain owner but not the author, I am astonished to have received the above reply from Steuermaus (to receive any correspondence at all from Steuermaus is a shock!) but I am very happy to allow the author of the comment his/her right to reply on this website and thus I approved this comment within minutes to receiving it. Although I have not personally been threatened by Alexander G. and I am not a customer of Steuermaus, I have heard at least 4 accounts of former customers and social media users who have recently been threatened by him for things they published about Steuermaus following its demise. You are certainly free to publish any counter-notification about that here, too, “Jefferson”. -Kathleen Parker