Category: ticker

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.

PPRO Group and its involvement in vast scam operations
PPRO Group consists of PPRO Financial Limited (www.ppro.com), an e-money institution (EMI) regulated by the UK FCA and several other entities in different jurisdictions including South America and Asia. The German PPRO Holding GmbH is the controlling entity. Philipp Nieland, a German citizen, is a director in both companies. The FCA-regulated PPRO Financial has a bank account with the BaFin-regulated Deutsche Handelsbank and through these accounts, it processes payments from scam customers and their victims.

PPRO Group and its involvement in vast scam operations
PPRO Group consists of PPRO Financial Limited (www.ppro.com), an e-money institution (EMI) regulated by the UK FCA and several other entities in different jurisdictions including South America and Asia. The German PPRO Holding GmbH is the controlling entity. Philipp Nieland, a German citizen, is a director in both companies. The FCA-regulated PPRO Financial has a bank account with the BaFin-regulated Deutsche Handelsbank and through these accounts, it processes payments from scam customers and their victims.

OneCoin Update – German prosecutors bring charges of money laundering
German prosecutors have not yet brought charges against the crypto-fraud scheme OneCoin and its principals, but are now taking action against the German payment processors involved. This is a somewhat strange approach and legally contestable. The public prosecutor's office in Bielefeld has brought charges against three people for money laundering for the OneCoin scam. which is not yet legally binding. German payment processors processed more than €360 million for the OneCoin Ponzi scheme.

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.

Request 4 Information – Exposing the Wolves of Hong Kong and their fake startup investment scam
Hong Kong is the gateway to this El Dorado for these Western investors. Hong Kong is also a vibrant crime scene of boiler room scams that and lure out thousands of Western investors with shares of worthless fake tech start-ups. A group of more than 30 defrauded European investors that lost millions to those Wolves of Hong Kong has conducted investigations and uncovered the global extent of the fraud.

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.

Finally! BaFin orders Deutsche Handelsbank to implement appropriate AML procedures
Deutsche Handelsbank has appeared as a payment processor in many binary options and broker scams. Moreover, the BaFin-regulated institution is a correspondent bank and partner of other regulated payment processors such as MoneyNetint, which also support scams. EFRI has filed a corresponding complaint to BaFin. The German regulator has now officially ordered Deutsche Handelsbank to implement appropriate AML measures to prevent money laundering and terrorist financing.

CySEC-regulated brokerage Coverdeal Holdings renounces license
Many CySEC brokers operate scams through offshore companies, using the CySEC CIF license to pretend seriousness. Admittedly, not all CySEC CIFs are bad but quite a lot are. In this respect, it is good news for investor protection if CySEC companies withdraw. Coverdeal Holdings Limited has done so, renounced its CIF license 231/14, and terminated its respective activities.

Investor Alert – Fund Recovery Scam caused the suicide of a German victim
In his late 70s, a German investor had lost all his life savings of around €400,000 to the scams of German Uwe Lenhoff. In his desperation, the investor was approached by a Fund Recovery scam promising him to recover the funds. But first, they said, they need a few thousand Euros initial payment. The old man had borrowed the money for the initial payment from a friend. The Fund Recovery scammers also took this money from him. In his desperation, the 80-year-old took his own life last week.

Binary options supervillain – The Yossi Herzog Story exposed in Australia
Yossi Herzog, charged in the Yukom Case in the U.S. with binary options fraud to the tune of $200 million is one of the alleged supervillains of the binary options era. Apparently, he defrauded tens of thousands of victims out of hundreds of millions with his broker schemes in the U.S., Europe, and Australia. As a result of Australian investigations, the Australian regulator ASIC is now heavily criticized for not having taken action against Herzog and his scams earlier.