Amber Gold, an unregulated Polish lender and investment company buffeted by concerns over its viability and its owner’s criminal past, said yesterday that it was liquidating itself while promising to repay investors all their funds plus interest.

It is unclear whether the 7,000 clients who gave the company about 80 million zlotys (€19.5 million) to invest in gold will get their money back as recent pledges by the company’s president, 28-year-old Marcin Plichta, that clients would be reimbursed have come to naught.

Operating since 2009, Amber Gold is one of a host of Polish “para-banks” offering investors higher returns than those being given by formal banks, as well as engaging in high-interest lending, all without falling under the scrutiny of the Polish Financial Supervision Authority (KNF), the banking regulator. – The Financial Times Limited 2012