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Shalon Case – U.S. Prosecutors seek a 20-year prison term for Russian hacker!
Andrei Tyurin has been a co-conspirator of the Israeli Gery “Gabi” Shalon who carried out the biggest financial hack in U.S. history. In Sept 2019 Tyurin a/k/a “Andrei Tiurin,” pled guilty to computer intrusion, wire fraud, bank fraud, and illegal online gambling offenses in connection with this hacker attack. Allegedly, Tyurin was paid $19 million for his work, scheming with Shalon to destroy evidence that might lead to their apprehension. Prosecutors are seeking a prison term between 15 to 20 years.
Latest Updates
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Consob black-out orders against scams increase to 340
Early this week, the Italian regulator Consob has ordered the black-out of five new websites offering financial services illegally. The regulator has the authority to order the black-out of websites that illegally offer financial services to Italian consumers. Thus Consob can order internet service providers to block access from Italy to websites offering financial services without the proper authorization.
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Secure Nordic Payments, MisterTango, and Payoptus
Josef Zavala is the co-founder of the "global payments and banking platform" Paytopus which allegedly has over 100 partners. Payoptus offers bank account IBAN solutions, card issuing and processing, and crypto solutions. No imprint, names, or legal information is provided on the site. Interestingly, insiders claim that Joseph Zavala is also one of the beneficial owners of the Secure Nordic Payments UAB d/b/a MisterTango, which is regulated in Lithuania.
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WorldMarkets Scheme – Still no payouts while SwiftXChange ceased activities
There is no doubt! WorldMarkets was and is a highly toxic scam that has very cleverly sold itself to investors via active reputation management. Recently we had a discussion with TrustPilot about our scam warning on the review platform. The already reported problems with payouts persist while announced payment partner SwiftXChange ceased its trading activities.
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U.S. prosecutors indicted and arrested six individuals in the AirBit Club Crypto Ponzi Scheme
The U.S. Department of Justice (DOJ) announced that Gutemberg Dos Santos, a citizen of Brazil and the United States, was extradited from Panama on November 25, 2020. Dos Santos is charged by indictment with co-defendants Pablo Renato Rodriguez, Scott Hughes, Cecilia Millan, Karina Chairez, and Jackie Aguilar for running the international crypto fraud scheme and money laundering operations around the notorious AirBit Club, a fraudulent MLM Crypto Ponzi scheme.
Payment Processors
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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.
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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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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.
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Law and Tax Enforcement Actions – Start with Payment Processors to chase cybercriminals
FinTelegram is frequently contacted by law enforcement agencies in various jurisdictions with requests for information. It has become known in the international law enforcement scene that FinTelegram has indeed valuable information and contacts. In our respective discussions, we recommend starting enforcement actions against facilitating payment processors. They are the backbone and payment data hubs of the ever-expanding cybercrime universe and its scams.
Cybercrime Court Cases
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KBH Andelskasse clients convicted in the U.S. for $250 Mio money-laundering scheme
The Swedish Monark Finance AB was one of 183 foreign high-risk customers of collapsed KBH Andelskasse. In 2018, transactions with these customers triggered 1,645 money laundering alarms. The bank processed €4.1 billion in that year, the majority of which were suspicious and came from these customers. While the Danish prosecutors investigate KBH Andelskasse the Canadian Firoz Patel, beneficial owner of Monark Finance, has been sentenced to a 3-years prison term for money-laundering in the United States.
Regulatory Updates
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FCA warns against TopNotchTradeFX and ExplicittradeFX scams cloning regulated entity
In July 2019, Finance Magnates has reported that the UK Financial Conduct Authority (FCA) issued a warning against a clone firm of FCA-regulated Tradeslide Trading Tech Limited. Back then, the clone firm operated the three brands, StockotradeFX, UltimateCryptoFX, TradeVibeFX. On Dec 1, 2020, the UK watchdog issued new warnings against the scam brands TopNotchTradeFX and ExplicittradeFX claiming that it would also be operated by the FCA-regulated entity.
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FCA issues another investor warning against Mitz Group with Paragon Finance
A couple of days ago the UK 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. FinTelegram exposed that this scam is related to the Paragon Finance scam. Today the FCA issued an explicit warning against Paragon Finance.
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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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European Funds Recovery Initiative (EFRI) is a non-government organization with the mission to support scam and cybercrime victims.
