tamir | FinTelegram News

Author: tamir

April 8, 2025

Update: Austrian Real Estate Tycoon Rene Benko Must Remain in Custody – FinTelegram Investigations in Focus

Vienna, April 2025 – The legal noose around Rene Benko, once hailed as one of Europe’s most influential real estate moguls, is tightening. The Vienna Regional Criminal Court has again extended his pre-trial detention by another two months. According to the court, there remains strong suspicion and a significant risk of the crime being committed again.

April 7, 2025

Financial Intelligence Update: Garantex and Its Successor, Grinex

Following the shutdown of the Russian crypto exchange Garantex in March 2025, evidence has emerged that its operations have been seamlessly continued under a new platform, Grinex. Despite sanctions and frozen wallets, Grinex has already processed over $29 million in transactions by mid-March 2025, according to an investigation by Swiss blockchain analytics firm Global Ledger.

April 5, 2025

U.S. Treasury Sanctions Crypto Wallets Tied to Russian Exchange and Houthi Terror Network

The U.S. Treasury’s Office of Foreign Assets Control (OFAC) has sanctioned eight crypto wallets tied to the Russian crypto exchange Garantex and Yemen’s Houthi militant group. Blockchain intelligence firms Chainalysis and TRM Labs uncovered nearly $1 billion in suspicious crypto transactions linked to terror financing, including attacks on civilian and military vessels in the Red Sea. This move highlights the growing intersection between digital assets and global conflict zones.

April 4, 2025

EFRI vs VISA & MasterCard – The Crusade Against Payment Crime Enablers Begins

EFRI, now an officially recognized Qualified Entity under Directive (EU) 2020/1828, has launched its first direct strike in a new phase of its campaign against financial crime enablers. On April 4, 2025, EFRI submitted identical letters to both VISA and MasterCard, accusing them of enabling mass fraud through negligence, systemic failures, and blind tolerance toward high-risk acquirers like Payvision B.V.

April 4, 2025

Cybercrime Legacy: The Status of Legal Actions Against B2G GmbH and Its Principals!

The case around the fraudulent binary options industry and its facilitating payment processors is still not closed. The illegal German payment processor B2G GmbH, operated by Rainer Treuer and Oleg Shvartsman, has been implicated in facilitating large-scale financial fraud. This report outlines the known details of their activities, the legal actions taken, and the unanswered questions surrounding their lack of prosecution.

April 2, 2025

Stablecoin Issuer Circle’s IPO – Executive Investor Briefing

Circle – the issuer of the USD Coin (USDC) stablecoin – has filed for an IPO, marking a milestone as the first major stablecoin company to seek a public listing. This move signals a pivotal moment for the crypto industry, bridging the gap between digital assets and traditional finance. Circle’s public debut (planned on the NYSE under ticker “CRCL”) is expected to enhance transparency and trust in stablecoins.

April 2, 2025

Switzerland Freezes $8.4 Billion in Russian Assets Amid Legal and Geopolitical Controversy

As of March 31, 2025, Switzerland has frozen 7.4 billion Swiss francs ($8.4 billion) in Russian assets under sanctions linked to the Ukraine conflict, marking a 28% annual increase from 5.8 billion francs in 2024. This includes financial holdings, 14 properties across six cantons, luxury vehicles, aircraft, artworks, and musical instruments. The assets belong to 1,859 individuals and 541 entities on Switzerland’s sanctions list.

Crypto Payments

April 1, 2025

Racing into Controversy? CoinsPaid Shifts Gears with Barrichello Sponsorship Amid Regulatory Scrutiny

CryptoProcessing by CoinsPaid has launched a new motorsport sponsorship campaign with racing prodigies Eduardo and Fernando Barrichello. But behind the glossy Web3 marketing lies a history of regulatory red flags and allegations of facilitating illicit payments. As FinTelegram has repeatedly reported, CoinsPaid is far from a neutral fintech innovator.

March 31, 2025

MoneynetInt – The Shadow Banker of the Binary Options Era Still Haunts the System

MoneynetInt, a FCA-licensed EMI with roots deep in Israel's high-risk payment sector, continues to draw scrutiny years after the binary options ban. Once a major facilitator in the fraudulent binary options industry, MoneynetInt's financials, connections, and questionable reputation-cleaning efforts warrant renewed attention.

March 29, 2025

OpenPayd Founder Ozan Ozerk – Visionary Fintech Founder or High-Risk Enabler?

Ozan Ozerk is often portrayed in the media—most recently in a flattering Türkiye Today profile—as a visionary Turkish entrepreneur reshaping global finance through his fintech ventures, most notably OpenPayd, EMBank, and Ozan Elektronik Para. But as regulatory actions mount and his companies increasingly surface in investigations tied to high-risk payments, scam facilitation, and money laundering,

People Radar

March 28, 2025

Russian Propaganda? Finance Talk And Its Report on Ivan Montik

Recent reports have brought to light intricate relationships among several entities and individuals in the online gambling and cryptocurrency sectors. Notably, Belarusian tech entrepreneur Ivan Montik has been identified as a key figure in these developments. While parts of the report on Finance Talk are related to the FinTelegram findings, Finance Talk is flagged as a Russian fake news site.

March 28, 2025

OpenPayd Faces Regulatory Trouble in Malta After Investor Compensation Ruling!

OpenPayd, a Malta-licensed payment institution long flagged by FinTelegram for its involvement in facilitating high-risk transactions and supporting scam-related financial infrastructure, has now been officially held liable by Malta’s Financial Arbiter. The ruling follows an investigation into a case in which an elderly woman was aggressively manipulated by fraudsters and lost her investment through an account operated via OpenPayd’s virtual IBAN infrastructure.

DeFi Decoded: Smart Contracts – The Code Behind the DeFi Revolution

Smart contracts are the invisible architects of decentralized finance. These self-executing lines of code run everything from token swaps to lending platforms without middlemen. But while they offer autonomy, they also introduce new risks—bugs, exploits, and irreversible mistakes. In this fourth installment of our FinTelegram DeFi Series, we explain what smart contracts are.

CFTC

Despite New Crypto Friendlyness: No Settlement Between U.S. CFTC And KuCoin?

A planned settlement between the U.S.CFTC and crypto exchange KuCoin is now in limbo due to a reported policy shift within the CFTC. This change is attributed to the Trump administration’s new approach, which deprioritizes enforcement actions against crypto companies. As a result, a CFTC attorney said that it is "unlikely that such authorization will be granted in the near term" regarding the settlement approval.

SEC’s New Era: Paul Atkins Sworn In—Will Crypto Finally Get the Regulatory Clarity It Deserves?

The U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) has entered a new chapter with the swearing-in of Paul S. Atkins as its 34th Chairman, a move widely anticipated to mark a dramatic pivot in how the agency approaches crypto and DeFi regulation. For years, the financial industry—especially the burgeoning digital asset sector—has bristled under the SEC’s “Regulation by Enforcement” strategy.

Crypto Mogul Changpeng Zhao – Fallen, Rich, and Rising Again?

As spring 2025 blooms and Easter’s themes of rebirth fill the air, Changpeng Zhao emerges as one of the most controversial figures of startup mythology: a man who fell spectacularly, paid a price—then rose again, wealthier and louder than ever. Once the almighty architect of Binance, CZ now resides in Dubai with a net worth that Forbes estimates at $63 billion.

Prison Update: Sam Bankman-Fried Transferred to Low-Security Federal Prison in Los Angeles!

Sam Bankman-Fried (SBF), the founder of the now-defunct cryptocurrency exchange FTX, has been transferred to the Federal Correctional Institution (FCI) Terminal Island in Los Angeles, California. This low-security facility is known for housing non-violent offenders and has previously held notable inmates such as Ramesh "Sunny" Balwani, former COO of Theranos.