FIU Estonia | FinTelegram News

Category: FIU Estonia

FIU Estonia

August 30, 2022

Russian-Controlled Estonian Payment Processer Payeer Changed Ownership And Directors!

Payment processor Payeer, which operates with an Estonian crypto license, has been on our radar since 2021, having been a facilitator in various broker scams. Until June 2022, Russian Liubov Svezhentseva was officially registered as the beneficial owner and director. After our last report, new Estonian individuals were again registered as beneficial owners and directors. We may justifiably conclude that they are acting as nominees for the real owners. Here is the update.

August 30, 2022

Latvian Racket: Estonian Nominee Director Of Scam Operator XFinances Filed Fraud Complaint!

The disappeared Estonian XFinances OÜ d/b/a Isunext was part of the Latvian Racket and the operator or facilitator of numerous broker scams. The Estonian citizen Urmas Rooba informed us that he would not the beneficial owner of XFinances OÜ. On 15 Sept 2020, he allegedly sold 100% of XFinances OÜ to the Latvian Pavels Krasovskis. Until the moment of the sale, XFinances had developed no activity except that the company had been granted a virtual currency license.

July 21, 2022

Breaking News! HODLtech Forced To Renounce Its Crypto License Over Money-Laundering Issues!

The FIU announced that during a supervision systematic weaknesses in the activities of Hodltech OÜ d/b/a HODLtech (www.hodltech.eu) have been exposed. Consequently, the company's crypto license would have been declared invalid after the proceedings. However, Hodltech OÜ renounced its activity license to avoid revocation via FIU. The company did not fulfill the obligation of notification about the suspicion of money laundering and terrorist financing.

June 10, 2022

Statement Of Russian-Controlled Payment Processor Mercuryo To FinTelegram!

FinTelegram has issued several alerts against broker scams in recent months in which we discovered the payment processor Mercuryo as a facilitator. We would like to state that in all warnings we actually perform a review and simulate deposits. In doing so, we take screenshots to be able to prove each statement in our warnings if necessary. BaFin has initiated an investigation against Mercuryo which is said to have ended favorably. Mercuryo has requested FinTelegram to make an appropriate correction or addition to some articles. Here is the statement with an update!

May 5, 2022

Finally! Licensed Estonian Venus.Exchange warns against its former client against LincolnFX!

The Cyprus-controled crypto payment processor Venus Exchange, regulated by the Estonian FIU, has come to our attention several times as a payment facilitator for broker scams. For example, at AstonTrust, FirstCapital, Swiss Capital, Wealth Capital, or LincolnFX. Financial regulators of various regimes have issued warnings against them several times. German law enforcement agencies are currently investigating LincolnFX and its operators. On its website, Venux Exchange informs and warns against its (former) client LincolnFX.

May 4, 2022

RIP MisterBit – the next broken Estonian payment processor?

FinTelegram has issued a lot of reports and warnings against broker scams or unauthorized brokers over the last two years where it was licensed Estonian crypto payment processor Futurus X OÜ d/b/a MisterBit as a facilitator. Ivan Abramov and Italian Cristiano Chiarugi are/were the managers responsible for MisterBit. While the website of licenses XFinances OÜ d/b/a Isunext have been down for weeks, MisterBit's website has been broken for weeks. It seem that this is the next vanishing licensed Estonian scam facilitators!

May 2, 2022

Estonian crypto payment processor and scam facilitator Zichain vanished!

Between 2017 and 2020, thousands of crypto licenses have been issued in Estonia for the operation of exchanges and wallet (payment) services. Estonia has become the mecca of the crypto payment industry in the EU. Many of the new entrants have positioned themselves primarily as facilitators of illegal transactions and scams. In the last 12 months, hundreds of these new crypto providers have disappeared. In some cases, the FIU revoked their licenses or did not renew them. Zichain OÜ still has its license but has disappeared anyway.

April 26, 2022

Whistleblower Request – The Estonian SMTM Holding and its many payment ventures!

Until recently, SMTM Holding and its various payment ventures were not on our radar. However, in our review of the offshore broker GrandCapital, the high-risk payment processor Black Rabbit came to our attention as a facilitator for crypto payments. It is operated by the Canadian Magua Pay Inc., which also does business as Magua Pay. Magua Pay Inc is just one of many payment ventures of the Estonian SMTM Holding of Israeli Moriel Carmi and Ukrainian Dmitri Orlov. We want to know more about it.

April 14, 2022

Regulated Estonian crypto payment processor Isunext vanished?

Isunext is the trading style of the crypto payment processor XFinances OÜ, registered and licensed as a crypto payment processor in Estonia by the FIU as the competent regulator. The beneficial owners of XFinances OÜ are the Latvians, Pavels Krasovskis and Rooba Urmas. The company is a part of the so-called Latvian Racket and has facilitated scams like XFinances, eXFinances, or Zurich Invests. For several days now, the company's website has been unavailable. Visitors receive the error code 523.

April 12, 2022

That was fast! First information on a lieutenant of Latvian Racket received!

UK-registered Preqster Ltd was part of the vast Latvian Racket and used to operate vanished broker scams such as Morgan FX Capital, Pips500, or Preqster FX. It was controlled by the Latvian citizen Sergejs Vasiljevs and was one of the many legal entities of the so-called Latvian Racket. In Nov 2021, Preqster Ltd was dissolved; its scams vanished. To follow these scams, we asked for information a few hours ago and received personal information regarding Sergejs Vasiljevs. Please continue! Let us chase and get those scammers!

March 10, 2022

The Russian €5 billion issue! Estonian Garantex Europe lost crypto license!

Garantex Europe OÜ used to be a licensed Estonian crypto payment processor moving more than €5 billion. It had close ties to Russia, a regulatory investigation found. The Estonian Financial Intelligence Unit (FIU) identified serious and systematic deficiencies in the company's KYC/AML procedures, which would have led to the revocation of the crypto license. Consequently, Garantex Europe OÜ surrendered its license.

October 14, 2021

No more licenses! The end of Estonia’s weird crypto laundering strategy?

In June 2021, Matis Maeker resumed his post as the head of Estonia’s Financial Intelligence Unit (FIU). The agency is the regulator for the thousands of crypto licenses that have been issued over the last couple of years. t agency believes Estonia should scrap its current crypto regulations and start again, he said in an interview with the local news outlet Eesti Ekspress. In total, the FIU issued more than 3,000 licenses (report here). In 2020, some 1,800 licenses have been revoked. Currently, around 400 crypto licenses are still active, which is more than all other EU member states issued.