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Urgent Warning against scam-facilitating Lithuanian payment processors
In the last few weeks, we have noticed an increasing number of Lithuanian companies acting as illegal payment processors for scams and handling bank payments for their client-victims. The payments are made on the basis of fake invoices for alleged consulting services issued by these illegal payment processors. Recently we have uncovered Skylas UAB, Fuselma UAB, or Merelita UAB as such scam facilitators and money launderers. We urgently ask investors to be super-cautious before paying an unrelated Lithuanian company for fake services.
Latest Updates
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Investor warnings against CMG Markets, Paragon Finance, and Lithuanian payment processors
The UK regulator FCA issued a warning against the broker scam CMG Markets, operated by Mitz Group with Mitz Partnership OÜ, Estonia, and its parent company Mitz Holdings Ltd, St. Vincent and the Grenadines. The scam is related to the Paragon Finance scam. Their payment processors are the Russian Piastrix for credit and debit cards and the Lithuanian Fuselma UAB and Skylas UAB with Trustcom Financial UAB for bank transfers. The scams of course take cryptos too.
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Cybercrime story around Danish Shadow Banking Hub KBH Andelskasse unfolds
EFRI co-founded by FinTelegram, has filed several complaints against the Danish KBH Andelskasse. The small cooperative bank was finally taken under supervision by the Finansiel Stabilitet and is being wound up. Danish prosecutors opened a criminal case on charges of money laundering and facilitating cybercrime. The leading Danish financial newspaper Børsen has published a series of reports about KBH Andelskasse based on FinTelegram and EFRI findings and his own research.
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Request 4 Information – Exposing the Wolves of Hong Kong and their fake startup investment scam
Hong Kong is the gateway to this El Dorado for these Western investors. Hong Kong is also a vibrant crime scene of boiler room scams that and lure out thousands of Western investors with shares of worthless fake tech start-ups. A group of more than 30 defrauded European investors that lost millions to those Wolves of Hong Kong has conducted investigations and uncovered the global extent of the fraud.
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CySEC confirms crypto regulation – What it means for Maxigrid and BitandBuy!
Maxigrid Ltd is a regulated Cyprus Investment Firm (CIF) and has made its crypto platform - as well as its bank accounts with GlobalNetint - available to scammers and acted as a payment processor for them. The Financial Ombudsman Service of the Republic of Cyprus purported that the CySEC would not regulate crypto assets. Apparently, it does. The CySEC has issued a guideline on how CIFs should deal with crypto.
Payment Processors
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Maxigrid Case – GlobalNetint allegedly terminated bank accounts
Maxigrid Ltd of the Israeli FinTech entrepreneur Roy Almagor is a CySEC-regulated investment firm. Despite the regulation, Maxigrid has supported scams like RoyalsFX or LincolnFX as a payment processor according to the information available to us. Payments from client-victims of the scams were made via the Lithuanian GlobalNetint (GNI), among others. Allegedy, GNI terminated the bank accounts of Maxigrid, Roy Almagor, and related entities.
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Investor Warning – Russian Umarkets broker scam facilitated by Epayblock and Exactly
The huge Russian Umarkets broker scam is allegedly operated by Market Solutions Ltd, SVG, and Maxi Services Belize Ltd, Belize. On their website, the companies Prometheus Ltd, SVG, and TS Software Ltd are also stated as operators or owners. The scam works with different payment processors like Exactly (www.exactly.com), the Lithuanian Epayblock, and also accepts crypto deposits from potential victims.
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Update on the Crypto Capital Corp Shadow Banker Case
The superseded indictment against U.S. citizen Reginald Fowler and his Israeli partner Ravid Yosef was unsealed in early 2019. They are charged with operating an unlicensed money transmitting business, bank fraud, and wire fraud. All this is said to have been done on the basis of cryptocurrencies and hundreds of millions of dollars are said to have been moved around the globe. This case is closely connected to the Bitfinex Case around a lawsuit.
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Binary Options Legacy – What happened to AlgoPay, AlgoCharge, and the Seroph Group?
FinTelegram research has been uncovered that the Good Option and Royal Broker binary options scams were operated by the Anguilla-registered G.O. Limited between 2014 and 2015. These and other scams have been facilitated by the Cyprus-based Payment Processor AlgoCharge of the Israeli Sarel Tal who acts as the director of AlgoPay Limited registered in Cyprus. Today all companies and websites have disappeared or are about to.
Cybercrime Court Cases
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Binary options supervillain – The Yossi Herzog Story exposed in Australia
Yossi Herzog, charged in the Yukom Case in the U.S. with binary options fraud to the tune of $200 million is one of the alleged supervillains of the binary options era. Apparently, he defrauded tens of thousands of victims out of hundreds of millions with his broker schemes in the U.S., Europe, and Australia. As a result of Australian investigations, the Australian regulator ASIC is now heavily criticized for not having taken action against Herzog and his scams earlier.
Regulatory Updates
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Sorry, too late! BaFin has issued order against dissolved laundromat
German companies have increasingly been used as payment processors for scams and cybercrime. The Wirecard case is well known. Less well known is that dozens of German companies acting as unauthorized payment processors for scammers. The law calls it money laundering. Lipans Smart Consult GmbH was one of those laundromats. BaFin issued a Cease-and-Desist Order but the company has already been terminated months ago.
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Finally! BaFin orders Deutsche Handelsbank to implement appropriate AML procedures
Deutsche Handelsbank has appeared as a payment processor in many binary options and broker scams. Moreover, the BaFin-regulated institution is a correspondent bank and partner of other regulated payment processors such as MoneyNetint, which also support scams. EFRI has filed a corresponding complaint to BaFin. The German regulator has now officially ordered Deutsche Handelsbank to implement appropriate AML measures to prevent money laundering and terrorist financing.
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European Funds Recovery Initiative (EFRI) is a non-government organization with the mission to support scam and cybercrime victims.
