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The Scammers War in Belgrade amidst Vienna Cybercrime Trials
A shooting attack was carried out this morning on Belgrade lawyer Marko Vujosevic. He apparently survived unharmed but badly shocked. Vujosevic was the founder and administrator of Global Payment Solutions Podgorica, which was registered in Montenegro. This was an illegal payment processor for two scammers Uwe Lenhoff and Gal Barak. The latter was sentenced to four years in prison in the Vienna Cybercrime Trials (#VCT). Lenhoff was found dead in his prison cell before the trial began. Previously, Vujosevic had claimed that Gal Barak had issued a murder order against him.
Latest Updates
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EU regulators’ problems with CySEC and its investment firms
The UK Financial Conduct Authority (FCA) suspended the EU license passporting rules and banned several CySEC-regulated Ínvestment Firms (CIF). Among them Magnum FX, Rodeler, Hoch Capital, and F1Markets. Roy Almagor's two firms - Maxigrid and Maxiflex voluntarily withdrew before the FCA blocked them. The Italian Consob has already blocked some CySEC CIFs from the Italian market before the FCA. Now a problem is also looming from Spain's CNMV as per a CySEC circular. Truth is, that CySEC and its CIFs have long been an issue for EU regulators.
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Seriously? UK FinTech Unicorn Monzo on the course to collapse!
Some FinTech could face collapse, analysts argue. According to GlobalData analyst Katherine Long, UK FinTech unicorn Monzo could be the second major collapse in the FinTech universe after the collapse of Australia's Xinja. Monzo is becoming an “increasingly expensive charitable cause for the UK market” and could be the first big UK challenger bank to collapse unless it changes its approach towards a more sustainable future.
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BlackRock – The world’s largest asset manager joins the Crypto Universe
The bull run of cryptocurrencies has stopped for the time being. After Bitcoin (BTC) and Ethereum (ETH) reached new all-time highs of more than $41,000 and $1,400 within a few weeks, prices have been correcting for two weeks. One thing is certain, however. The entry of institutional investors into crypto has been broad-based - from PayPal to the world's largest asset manager BlackRock; the FIAT elite has definitely made first foodprints the crypto universe. This promises a durable crypto-asset future.
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Investor Alert – Broker Scam TolTechFX still active
Italien Consob ordered the blackout of TolTechFX allegedly operated by NewTraders Holdings Ltd, registered in St. Vincent & the Grenadines. Another scam company established and managed by Wilfred Services. Hover, the broker scam is still active under the domain www.toltechfx.co. Payment providers integrated are the usual suspects, including GumBallPay, PayNetEasy, RealDeposit, MNPPay, and PayCent.
Payment Processors
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Payvision and Vienna Cybercrime Trials – Let’s scam the scammers and the EFRI Campaign
Oh yes, the alleged German cybercrime mastermind Uwe Lenhoff was a very good acquaintance of Payvision founder and CEO Rudolf Booker. They spent skiing vacations together in Austria and communicated a lot. Thanks to the frequent and very open communication between Lenhoff and Booker, their business details can be found in the criminal files. They show how high-risk payment processors work.
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High-Risk Payment Processors Series and the dark side of finance
Undoubtedly, high-risk payment processors (#HRPP) are at the very center of cybercrime and scams. Very often, they facilitate consumer fraud and related money laundering. In early September 2020, Gal Barak was sentenced to four years in prison for investment fraud and money laundering in the Vienna Cybercrime Trials (#VCT) for operating a global scam broker network. A breakthrough in the fight against cybercrime. the forensic analysis of banking and financial data by law enforcement, the trial findings, and the court's reasoning in the verdict also allow investigating the anatomy of high-risk payment processors.
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Illegal Payment Processors FermenTec Trade and Wascom Group exposed
Scams would not even be possible without the intentional or grossly negligent involvement of payment processors. In this respect, the prosecution and detection of crime-facilitating payment processors is a key focus in the fight against scams. Thanks to the cooperation of scam victims and whistleblowers, we have already been able to uncover numerous licensed and unlicensed payment processors. With the Serbian FermenTec Trade DOO and the Hungarian Wascom Group KFT, we have again caught two illegal payment processors.
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Scam-facilitating Maltese payment processor PayTah refused to recognize its legal responsibility
Recently, we reported that the high-risk payment processor Phoenix Payments Ltd d/b/a Paytah (www.paytah.com), like Maxigrid in Cyprus, has been helping large broker scams like RoyalsFX, LincolnFX, or CodeFX to defraud consumers and retail investors with their payment services. Paytah is to be held liable for this but has so far refused to accept its responsibility for intentionally or grossly negligently supporting the scams and refuses to provide any assistance to the victims.
Cybercrime Court Cases
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Trinity Files – The U.S Case of Gery Shalon, Vienna Cybercrime Trials, and Russian connections
The Georgian-born Israeli Gery "Gabi" Shalon is arguably the mastermind of the world's largest cybercrime organization, stretching over the U.S., Europe, Russia, Georgia, Israel into Asia. The Israeli accountant Ziv Orenstein was one of Shalon's deputies in the U.S. There, they operated illegal gaming schemes and performed the largest cybercrime attack ever on the U.S. financial industry. While waiting for his U.S. trial Shalon continues to operate his cybercrime ventures.
Regulatory Updates
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EFRI takes action against scam-facilitating Maltese payment processor Paytah
Phoenix Payments Ltd provides payments services d/b/a as Paytah. Between 2019 and 2020, the payment processor has been processing hundreds of thousands of euros from victims of LincolnFX, RoyalsFX, CodexFX, and other scams. The legal entities behind these scams have been clients of Paytah. The company directors are the Italian Marco Lavanna, the Maltese Keith Farrugia, and Spaniard Francesc Xavier Alabart Lopez. The payment processor's beneficial owner is payment veteran Marco Lavanna through his Swiss-registered firm named Fenice Holding SA.
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SEC Complaint against Ripple may cause the first financial collapse in crypto universe
The last days of 2020 saw the U.S. SEC complaint against Ripple Labs Inc. alleging that its XRP is actually a security. A regulatory attack on the entire crypto scene, some analysts argue. Once the 3rd-largest crypto, XRP's market cap plummeted from more than $26 billion to less than $10 billion. Some crypto exchanges such as Coinbase, OKCoin, or Crypto.com have suspended trading in XRP. Is it the end of days for XRP and the crypto bull-run?
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U.S. SEC obtained Emergency Asset Freeze against $120 Mio crypto scheme Virgil Capital
The U.S. SEC filed an emergency action and obtained an order imposing an asset freeze and other emergency relief against Virgil Capital LLC (www.virgilcap.com) and its affiliated companies in connection with an alleged securities fraud relating to Virgil Capital's cryptocurrency trading fund, Virgil Sigma Fund LP. The Commission's action alleges that the fraud was directed by Stefan Qin, an Australian citizen and part-time resident of New York, who owns and controls the crypto scheme.
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European Funds Recovery Initiative (EFRI) is a non-government organization with the mission to support scam and cybercrime victims.
