Money Laundering | FinTelegram News

Category: Money Laundering

September 16, 2021

Gery Shalon – The Plea Deal and the forfeited fortune of a cybercrime mastermind

In 2015, U.S. prosecutors charged the Georgia-born Israeli citizen Gery "Gabi" Shalon in a twenty-three count Superseding Indictment. He was charged with computer hacking, securities fraud, aggravated identity theft, illegal online gambling, illegal money transmitting business, and money laundering. Most of the files are still unsealed. What is known now is that in April 2017, Shalon has pled guilty to all 23 counts and made a plea deal with prosecutors that included transferring all seized funds and assets to the United States. We are talking about a real big fortune. We are talking about a real big fortune including a $74.7M bank account.

September 2, 2021

Finally! ING’s scam-facilitating subsidiary Payvision may be closed down!

Rudolf Booker is said to spend a lot of time on his €30M yacht. The running costs of the yacht are €3M per year. Well, ok. He has enough time and money. He sold FinTech Payvision, which he founded and led as CEO, to ING in 2018 at a valuation of €360M. Booker and Payvision mainly served high-risk merchants, scams, and cybercrime organizations. Booker personally was well acquainted with leading scammers like Uwe Lenhoff and Gal Barak. Now the victims of these scammers want their money from Payvision. And ING considers to close down its troublesome subsidiary, local media reports.

August 21, 2021

Background Report – International cybercrime, Bet90, and the dirty Maltese connections!

It was perhaps the largest cybercrime organization in Europe, but certainly, it was in Germany. The public prosecutor's office announced that the cybercrime case surrounding the German Uwe Lenhoff, who died in prison, had produced more than 200,000 victims in Germany alone. Lenhoff and Dutch real estate investor Dirk-Jan Bakker established Veltyco Group PLC, which is listed on the London Stock Exchange. After Lenhoff's death, the company was renamed B90 Holdings PLC and operates the Bet90 sportsbook platform , licensed by the MGA. Bet90 has been funded with money stolen from the victims in this very same cybercrime case.

August 16, 2021

R4I – Broker scam Infinitrade, Praxis Cashier, and Maltese Paytah

In May 2020, the UK FCA issued an investor warning against the Infinitrade broker scam, operated by A&E Products Ltd, registered in Bulgaria. We know that the scam by payment processors Praxis Cashier, Paytah, and Crypto1 were involved. We are also aware that the MFSA has received complaints from victims about Paytah and is referring them to the Ombudsman. Therefore, we would like to know more to support the victims' claims.

August 3, 2021

Breaking News – Lithuanian Epayblock under investigation with restricted activities

Finally! The Bank of Lithuania (BoL) today announced that it launched a probe into scam-facilitating Epayblock. It was about time! We informed the public and the regulator time and again about the bad activities of this Polish-Lithuanian e-Money Institution. In its investigation, BoL will check possible breaches of money laundering and terrorist financing prevention. Epaybank's activities will be partially restricted during the investigation. BoL said that it received information that some of Epayblock's customers may be using its services for fraudulent purposes. Sure they do!

July 22, 2021

Disgraced Payvision founder Rudolph Booker loses motion for a preliminary injunction

Rudolf Booker was the co-founder and, until 2020, CEO of Payvision, a Dutch FinTech acquired by ING in 2018 at a valuation of €360M. Payvision..

July 2, 2021

Notorious scam-facilitator Deutsche Handelsbank about to close down payment business

The notoriously well-known Deutsche Handelsbank has been in the FinTelegram focus over the last three years. Like ING's Dutch subsidiary Payvision and, until its collapse, Wirecard, the bank was a prime address for scammers and cybercrime organizations. Uwe Lenhoff, who died in prison in 2020, was one of the clients of Deutsche Handelsbank and used the bank to launder the illicit proceeds of his huge lotto scam LottoPalace. Now the German financial institution seems to be about to its dirty payment division.

June 28, 2021

Really? Scam victims’ money allegedly financed the campaign of the President of Montenegro!

The Belgrade-based online news portal In4S exposed an explosive political dimension of cybercrime charges around Gal Barak und Uwe Lenhoff. The Belgrade lawyer Marko Vujosevic allegedly stole and laundered €19 million via Global Payment Solutions DOO (GPS) in Montenegro. GPS is at the very center of the cybercrime organization of Barak and Lenhoff. The latter died in prison for unknown reasons. Barak was sentenced to four years in prison for investment fraud and money laundering. And now IN4S claims part of these cybercrime proceeds was used to finance the President of Montenegro.

June 26, 2021

Lithuanian compliance issue or why GlobalNetInt is grateful for its penalization

A penalty is usually not an occasion for gratitude. That would also make the purpose of a punishment absurd. Usually, one is grateful for a received punishment only if one is aware that one has gotten away well with this punishment and should actually have been punished much worse. A driver who is speeding while massively impaired by alcohol or other drugs certainly grateful is grateful if he is punished by the police only for speeding and not for the offense of driving under the influence (DUI). Similarly, GlobalNetInt (GNI) shows itself grateful for the penalization by the Bank of Lithuania.

June 25, 2021

Bank of Lithuania fines GlobalNetInt for violating money-laundering rules and restricts business

The Lithuanian-Israeli e-Money Institution GlobalNetInt, part of the FCA-regulated MoneyNetint Group, was fined by the Bank of Lithuania for its violations of anti-money laundering and terrorist activities financing rules. GNI has to pay €350,000 because it did not properly assess the risk posed by customers and did not always ensure that customer identification remotely complied with legal requirements. GNI, focused on high-risk clients, does not rely on information from a reliable and independent source when verifying the documents and information on beneficiaries. No surprise here!

June 14, 2021

R4I – Connectum, Walletto, and the money laundering connections to Russian Binex Group

The former CEO and beneficial owner of FCA-regulated Connectum Limited, Latvian Edgars Lasmanis has joined Walletto UAB, a regulated Lithuanian e-money institution, as chairman of the supervisory board. He has held this role since October 2017, according to his LinkedIn profile. Lasmanis resigned as director and CEO of Connectum in January 2021, according to UK Companies House. Connectum, in turn, has had a central role in the money laundering of Binex Group LP around the E&G Bulgaria cybercrime organization of Gal Barak, Gery Shalon, and Vladislav Smirnov.

June 10, 2021

The incredible story of Wirecard Mini-me Payvision and its founder Rudolf Booker

Amsterdam FinTech entrepreneur Rudolf Booker founded the payment processor Payvision in 2002 and ran it more or less successfully. The business evidently took off in 2015 when Amsterdam real estate investor Dirk-Jan Bakker introduced German cybercrime activist Uwe Lenhoff to Booker. Lenhoff and his partners brought dozens of fraudulent binary options operators to Payvision, where Booker welcomed them with open arms. In 2018, Booker sold Payvision to ING for €360 million, fully packed with high-risk and illegal clients; in April 2020, he and his co-founders left Payvision.