Danish Nordisk Genbrug Battery Recycling Franchise Scam: Refusing Raw Materials After Collecting Equipment Fees for 'Military-Grade' Lithium Extraction

Who Gets Targeted

Victims are mostly small and medium-sized entrepreneurs lacking a background in the battery industry, traditional business owners eager to pivot, and local investors. Seeing news about the 2026 new energy retirement wave and reports on the '100-billion-yuan blue ocean,' they mistakenly believe that lithium extraction from recycling is a low-barrier, high-return opportunity. They are also misled by the 'Danish/Nordic, military-grade technology' facade, believing overseas brands carry inherent compliance and patent endorsements. Driven by greed for high returns and fear of missing out, they often fail to verify if the counterparty holds a domestic hazardous waste business license before paying hundreds of thousands in equipment fees, only to discover later that the promises of raw material supply and recycling buybacks are empty.

骗局怎么运作

• The operators register or misappropriate names containing 'Denmark' or 'Nordisk,' claiming to be an official Danish environmental project. However, searches of Danish media and official registries show no record of a 'Nordisk Genbrug' battery recycling company. They use real Danish battery recycling regulations and public reports on legitimate firms like Stena Recycling as 'endorsement' materials to create the illusion of an 'international giant seeking investment in China.' Victims face high costs for cross-border verification, making it difficult to detect the fraud on the spot.
• The sales pitch repeatedly emphasizes 'military-grade lithium extraction technology,' 'core patents,' and 'key national support projects.' Combined with the hype surrounding the 2026 battery recycling industry, they inflate both the technical barriers and profit margins. In reality, legitimate Danish recycling firms use open technical routes like molten salt extraction or shredding/sorting into 'black mass' and never use 'military-grade' in commercial marketing. This terminology is purely a sales tactic to justify exorbitant equipment pricing.
• The operators do not profit from recycling batteries; instead, they require franchisees to purchase 'specialized lithium extraction equipment,' production lines, or technology licenses from designated channels at high prices, promising 'supply of raw materials and high-price buybacks upon equipment installation.' They use the expectation of massive profits to induce victims to pay hundreds of thousands in equipment fees before signing. Payments are often made to personal accounts or third-party accounts inconsistent with the company name, laying the groundwork for an eventual exit scam.
• After equipment delivery, the operators use unilateral acceptance standards—such as 'raw materials not meeting standards,' 'insufficient purity,' 'changes in environmental standards,' or 'mismatched technical parameters'—to refuse to supply raw materials or accept processed products. Victims are left with idle equipment and total financial loss. Contracts contain vague language regarding material acceptance, with all power held by the operator. Victims often find that the terms are standard form contracts designed to trap them, making cross-border legal recourse extremely difficult.
• Some victims are further induced to 'upgrade equipment' or 'pay unfreezing fees/deposits' to resume supply and settlement, leading to a second round of exploitation. Once franchisees collectively demand refunds or report the fraud, the operators simply dissolve the company and rebrand to start over. Due to the cross-border nature and the fact that victims are scattered, individual cases often fail to meet the threshold for criminal filing, leaving victims with no path to recovery.

红旗信号（看到这些快跑）

• 🚩 Claims to be a Danish company but has no Danish CVR business registration number, no Danish-language website, no physical office address, and only provides a mainland China mobile number or WeChat for contact.
• 🚩 Marketing materials are filled with buzzwords like 'military-grade,' 'national-level,' 'core patents,' and 'exclusive technology' that cannot be verified in official Danish or industry directories. Legitimate companies like Stena Recycling or Nordic Salt Cycle never use such language.
• 🚩 Before signing, the focus is solely on equipment and licensing fees, with no raw material supply contract or minimum supply commitment. They even refuse on-site factory visits or providing samples for trial processing.
• 🚩 Contracts stipulate that raw material acceptance standards and recycling settlement prices are 'subject to Party B's inspection,' giving the operator unilateral control, while penalty clauses only bind the franchisee.
• 🚩 Requires a large, one-time payment for equipment to a personal account or a third-party account inconsistent with the company name, and cannot provide a proper invoice (or only provides one for 'technical service fees').
• 🚩 Claims that individuals or ordinary workshops can conduct lithium extraction. Legitimate lithium battery recycling is a hazardous waste industry requiring a hazardous waste business license and environmental compliance; small-scale franchisees cannot legally operate.

真实案例

• The major Qianyu Battery fundraising fraud case recorded on Chinese Wikipedia: Used battery production as a pretext to raise funds from the public, ultimately legally classified as illegal fundraising. This demonstrates that the battery sector is a high-risk area for investment scams and serves as a public legal precedent for similar 'battery concept' harvesting. (Source: https://zh.wikipedia.org/zh-cn/%E4%B9%BE%E5%AE%87%E9%9B%BB%E6%B1%A0%E7%89%B9%E5%A4%A7%E9%9B%86%E8%B3%87%E8%A9%90%E9%A8%99%E6%A1%88)
• In August 2026, the Supreme People's Court released a typical case of franchise contract fraud involving the 'Mitaoli' brand in Nanjing. The operators, including a person named Ye, fabricated brand backgrounds without franchise qualifications or a mature business model to induce contracts, defrauding over 300 victims of more than 54 million yuan. Four individuals were sentenced to prison terms ranging from 12 to 5 years, serving as a direct analogy for franchise fee fraud. (Source: https://m.mp.oeeee.com/a/BAAFRD0000202608121642345.html)
• In October 2023, the Supreme People's Procuratorate released Shanghai's first 'franchise trap' contract fraud case. A group led by a person named Jin fabricated the influence of over 20 milk tea brands to defraud franchisees. By the time of the case, they had defrauded over 5,800 franchisees nationwide of more than 440 million yuan. 69 defendants were sentenced to prison terms ranging from 14 years and 6 months to 3 years and 1 month, serving as an analogy for similar fraud methods. (Source: https://finance.sina.com.cn/tech/roll/2023-10-23/doc-imzsahxn2504356.shtml)
• The Nordic Waste bankruptcy liquidation case reported by the Danish Børsen: Multiple affiliated companies were pursued by bankruptcy administrators for millions of Danish kroner. The name 'Nordisk' in Denmark is associated with environmental accidents and debt disputes, not battery recycling; scammers use such Nordic-sounding names to confuse the public.

Official Stance

• On April 1, 2026, six departments including the MIIT, NDRC, and MEE jointly released the 'Interim Measures for the Management of Recycling and Comprehensive Utilization of Used Power Batteries for New Energy Vehicles,' tightening oversight (reported by Sina Finance).
• On July 30, 2026, the MIIT issued Announcement No. 20 of 2026, repealing the 'tiered utilization' clauses in the 'Industry Standard Conditions for Comprehensive Utilization of Used Power Batteries for New Energy Vehicles (2024 Edition),' removing 100 tiered-utilization enterprises from the compliance list (reported by The Paper).
• Taiwanese police publicly appealed via the Liberty Times: Do not trust online posts about used battery recycling; fraud syndicates use these ads to steal personal information and funds.
• The Danish Environmental Protection Agency (Miljøstyrelsen) and the 2025 Danish Battery Producer Responsibility regulations (see the Danish official legal database retsinformation) state: Used lithium batteries are hazardous waste and must be processed through community recycling centers, producer responsibility organizations, or certified companies like Stena Recycling. EU battery regulations set mandatory targets for collection and recycling; legitimate recycling never recruits practitioners through individual franchising.

How to Protect Yourself

• ✅ Verify before paying: Use the Danish CVR system to check company registration, inquire with the Danish EPA about their battery recycling qualifications, and check for domestic hazardous waste licenses and MIIT 'white list' status. If you cannot find this information, it is high-risk.
• ✅ On-site inspection and trial: Insist on visiting the factory, conducting on-site trial processing of small batches, and obtaining third-party test reports. Any project that refuses on-site inspection or only provides video tours should be treated as high-risk.
• ✅ Have a lawyer review the contract: Focus on raw material supply obligations, minimum supply quantities, acceptance standards, settlement prices, and breach of contract clauses. Never sign contracts where acceptance power is held unilaterally, there is no minimum supply commitment, or penalty clauses are unequal.
• ✅ Use corporate accounts and keep records: Refuse to transfer money to personal or third-party accounts. Demand a formal invoice and keep all chat logs, marketing materials, and transfer receipts. If they refuse to accept materials, stop all further payments immediately and report to the police.
• ✅ Check official sources before joining: Before signing, proactively search for the latest announcements and risk warnings from the MIIT, MEE, and local market regulators to confirm if the company is on a compliance list or a risk warning list.