EMI | FinTelegram News

Category: EMI

March 28, 2021

Regulated Lithuanian scam-facilitator Epayblock lost two top managers

We brought a Request 4 Information (R4I) regarding Epayblock a few days ago because we want to know more about the e-Money institution regulated by the Bank of Lithuania with authorization code LB001911. The reason for this R4I was that illegal Lithuanian payment providers such as Skylas, Merelita, or Ristema are involved in currently active broker scams. These companies launder money through their bank accounts at Epayblock. Upon our R4I, we received the information that two top managers had already left the company several months ago.

March 26, 2021

R4I – Epayblock, illegal payment processor clients, and money-laundering

Amid the hype of binary options, CFDs, and crypto trading, many FinTech entrepreneurs have picked up e-Money Institution licenses in Lithuania. Like Eyal Nachum with his Bruc Bond and International Fintech. Well, they lost the license and went to Singapore. However, MoneyNetint Group and its GlobalNetInt are still there; regulated! Most recently, Epayblock caught our attention because it is repeatedly involved in broker scams as a payment processor. We would like to know more about Epayblock.

February 7, 2021

European FinTech Ecosphere – Introducing high-risk payment processor AstroPay

AstroPay is operated by Larstal Limited, a company registered in the UK and regulated by the FCA as an e-Money Institution. Besides, AP Global Corporation LLC, UK, and Galactic Mark Limited, HK, are also listed as operators on the website. The beneficial owners are Uruguayan nationals Andrés Bzurovski Bay and Sergio Enrique Fogel Kaplan. AstroPay Cards, sold through resellers such as MorPay or Paywards, have become very popular as a means of payment among high-risk merchants and scammers.

January 20, 2021

Check this out – German PPRO Group gets $180M at $1B+ valuation

Germany has a new FinTech. FCA-regulated PPRO Financial is controlled by the German PPRO Holding GmbH and has affiliated companies in Europe, Asia, North and South America. Today, the company announced that it had received a total of $180 million in fresh money from investors based on a valuation of more than $1 billion. With this, PPRO joins the club of FinTech unicorns. However, in the past, PPRO has also attracted attention for supporting broker scams with its payment services.

December 27, 2020

Jeton Review Update – The Gambling Payment Processor and its Cyprus-Turkish reseller network

In our review of the Jeton payment platform powered by FCA-regulated entities La Orange and Financial House, we registered and tested the Jeton Wallet app. After we uploaded the required documents for verification, it took just under 10 days for the verification to actually take place. To that extent, we were able to continue the review and learn more about functionality and the Jeton environment. Here's the update on that.

December 21, 2020

Finally gone! Disgraced Israeli Payment processor Bruc Bond et al vanished to Singapore

The Bank of Lithuania revoked the company's EMI license in April 2020. FinTelegram has previously alerted its readers in numerous reports. For this, FinTelegram has been sued for alleged defamation in Israel. The Bank of Lithuania actually fully confirmed the reports and turned the alleged defamation into a proven fact. In the meantime, Bruc Bond has disappeared from the EU and operates on the Asian markets with a MAS license in Singapore. They have gone to conquered Asia.

December 20, 2020

AML: Another Chief Compliance Officer departs from GlobalNetInt

Lithuanian GlobalNetInt has had an audit from the Bank of Lithuania in recent months. The company focused on high-risk clientele appears to have compliance, KYC, and AML issues. Among the clients are many forex and crypto firms as well as payment processors associated with and/or facilitating scams. The problems with compliance were also confirmed to us by a consultant. Now the Chief Compliance Officer (CCO) is also said to have left the company.

December 17, 2020

FinTech Review – FCA-regulated Bilderlings with Latvian roots

Bilderlings Pay Limited is regulated as an authorized e-money institution under reference No 900637 since May 2018. The institution is doing business as Bilderlings (www.bilderlings.com and www.bilderlings.eu) and offers international payments with app and debit card. Like TransferWise et al. The company was founded back in December 2015 and is led by Latvians Deniss Polakovs and Andrejs Zaharovs. Until recently, Latvian Aleksandrs Peskovs was listed as the beneficial owner.

December 17, 2020

PXP Financial and MoneyNetInt cooperate for cross-border payments

Regulated by the FCA with reference No 504318, PXP Financial Limited as an Authorized Payment Institution was originally founded as Kalixa Accept Limited by Austria's Bwin. Following the acquisition of Bwin by public-listed GVC Holdings PLC, Kalixa was sold to Senjo Group for €29 million in late 2019 and renamed PXP Financial. The company recently announced its cooperation with FCA-regulated MoneyNetInt Group. Senjo Group was one of the largest - and, according to the Financial Times (FT), most opaque - partners of the collapsed Wirecard.

December 12, 2020

FCA-regulated AF Payments and Guy El-Khoury

Guy El-Khoury, born Jan 1980 used to be the CEO of FBME Card Services Ltd (FBMECS) until at least 2016. This Cypriot entity was operational centre of the notorious Tanzanian FBME Bank. In 2015 the US FinCEN issued a Final Rule against FBME on accusations of facilitating financial transactions for multinational organized crime organizations and Hezbollah. Later that year the Central Bank of Cyprus (CBC) initiated the so-called Kroll Report that blamed FBMECS of credit card maninipulations. CBC consequently revoked the bank's license. Today, Guy El Khoury is the director of the FCA-regulated AF Payments Limited.

December 9, 2020

Money-laundering complaint filed against Deutsche Handelsbank and PPRO Group

EFRI has filed several crucial money-laundering complaints against banks and payment processors with the competent authorities in various jurisdictions. Without the intentional or negligent facilitation of these institutions, investment fraud by scammers would not be possible in the first place. EFRI has now filed a money laundering complaint against Deutsche Handelsbank and the PPRO Group along with extensive evidence.

December 9, 2020