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Grenke Case – The Vienna Connections of an alleged fraud scheme
A few days ago Fraser Perring and his Viceroy exposed the alleged fraud surrounding Wolfgang Grenke’s listed German company GRENKE AG. One of the central accusations is that the GRENKE AG is said to have continuously taken over companies that were previously founded by Wolfgang Grenke and/or associated persons and companies. These takeovers by the listed GRENKE AG would therefore have been transactions with affiliated and/or related companies and indivuduals.
Latest Updates
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BridgerPay – A good and whitelisted Cypriot PayTech
We have identified BridgerPay as a payment provider of some broker scams in the last few weeks and subsequently put it on the Payment Processor Blacklist. We are of the opinion that without the intentional or negligent involvement of payment processors most of the scams would not be possible in the first place. FinTelegram wants to warn consumers, investors, and the payment industry about these bad payment processors via the blacklist. BridgerPay is no longer on it.
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Viceroy Report exposes German Grenke as the next Wirecard-like fraud case
Delaware registered Viceroy Research has once again published an obviously explosive analysis. The group around Fraser Perring is specialized in investigative financial research and was among the first to point out the irregularities in the German Wirecard scandal. Now Viceroy is revealing the irregularities at Grenke, a public-listed German financial services provider. The companies share price has collapsed as a result.
Payment Processors
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Dear Bank of Lithuania – please explain your situation with International Fintech!
According to reports by Lithuanian journalist Vakaris Deksnys, the Bank of Lithuania has terminated the license of the International FinTech UAB of Israelis Eyal Nachum and Tamir Zoltovsky without providing a reason. It already happened in July 2020. No statement was given by the regulator on this matter as it would be necessary and required. That's a strange approach. How can a regulated company simply disappear form an EU regulator's list without further explanation?
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Binary options fraud – Notorious Cartu Brothers charged by U.S. CFTC
It is a court season for the fraudulent binary options industry and its perpatrators. Among the worst scammers were David Cartu and his brothers. After the Canadian regulator OSC had already sued them for binary options fraud, the U.S. Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC) filed a civil enforcement action. The regulator charges six individuals and four companies with operating a fraudulent binary options trading scheme that received over $165 million via their Irish GreyMountain Management Ltd.
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Broker scam Trade99, ClearTransfer, and another vanished crypto platform
Since we started our reports about the RoyalsFX Scam and described the background and processes, victims of other scams like LincolnFX or Trade99 have come forward. They have identified similar processes and/or have been involved in several of these scams and have discovered parallels. The involvement of the CySEC-regulated Maxigrid Ltd as a payment processor and its crypto platform BitandBuy was one of these parallels. As is the disappearance of another crypto platform.
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BaFin issues cease and desist order against payment processor Global Data Conduct
The German regulator has issued a Cease and Desist Order against the illegal payment processor Global Data Conduct GmbH, a company registered in Cologne, Germany. This German company at least acted as facilitator for the broker Scam TradesFX, received bank transfers from client victims and forwarded them to the scammers. The sole managing director of the company is Anatolijs Dedenko, who lives in Düsseldorf.
Cybercrime Court Cases
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#VCT – Gal Barak sentencing effective, millions for victims, and an explanation
On September 1, 2020, at the Vienna Cybercrime Trials, the court found the accused Israeli Gal Barak guilty of (cyber) investment fraud and money laundering and sentenced him to four years in prison. In addition, the victims were granted the funds confiscated by the authorities. Law enforcement has been able to track and seize these funds thanks to a FinTelegram whistleblower. After Gal Barak, his wife Marina Barak has also been served with an indictment.
Regulatory Updates
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Bruc Bond and the crumbling Israeli FinTech empire
The two Israeli FinTech entrepreneurs Eyal Nachum and Tamir Zolovsky are not having a good time right now. Amidst the COVID-19 pandemic, their two licensed EU e-Money Institutions Bruc Bond and International Fintech saw their licenses terminated. In the case of Bruc Bond because of systematic compliance violations and problems with money laundering. Nachum, Zoltovsky. and their various payment processors have a long track record in the scam area.
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Investor Alert – Do not trust TrustPilot Ratings and Reviews #CapitalWay
We have been monitoring the TrustPilot review platform in the context of scams activities. Specifically, we have reported on the case of Capital Way aka Capital Way Group on the basis of a public investor warning issued by the UK regulator FCA. While the UK watchdog warned investors about the scam, the scam on TrustPilot still gets 5-stars reviews. A 1-star rating of FinTelegram referring to the FCA warning has been temporarily put offline by TrustPilot after the Capital Way guys complained about a possible breach of guidelines.
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European Funds Recovery Initiative (EFRI) is a non-government organization with the mission to support scam and cybercrime victims.
