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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.

March 26, 2021

Follow the money – Global Markets scam proceeds laundered via GlobalNetInt

We have recently reported on the GlobalMarkets (a/k/a Glob Markets) broker scam, which has been highly active over the last few years but seems to be disappearing. The scam was operated under various domains by Cubic Services Ltd, Seychelles. Numerous regulators have warned against the scam and the operator since 2019. Despite these public warnings, how could the scam still steal customer funds? If you follow the money trail, you again end up with MoneyNetint Group (MNI) and its GlobalNetInt (GNI) in Lithuania.

March 23, 2021

Investor Warning – Bitcoin System scheme with Finotive and Finexics broker scams

The fraudulent affiliate campaign Bitcoin System led us today to the broker scam Finotive (www.finotive.net), supposedly operated by Harmonte Group LLC, registered in St. Vincent & the Grenadines. In our scam review, we met old acquaintances. Once again, PayBox (cashier.boxipay.io) was in action as the cashier. As scam-facilitating payment processors, we also discovered the usual suspects. Once again, we exposed iPayTotal, GumBallPay, PayNetEasy, PayTechno, and PayCent.

March 22, 2021

Vienna Cybercrime Trials – Payments, Payvision, and about not being a Chief Financial Officer

Today was day #3 of the Vienna Cybercrime Trials in the case of Marina Barak. Last week, her lawyer, Norbert Wess, had announced that his client would not answer any questions. Apparently, the statements of the law enforcement agent, who provided his testimony today, caused her "I am silent" attitude to change. Marina Barak was then again available for questioning by the court and the prosecutor. Today's focus was all about the financial processes, the payment processors, and the money-laundering of the cybercrime organization E&G Bulgaria.

March 21, 2021

High-Risk payment processor MoneyNetint goes Brazil with RippleNet

MoneyNetint, the FCA-regulated Israeli e-Money institution around Yishay Trif and Raphael Golan, announced a new payment service for merchants doing business with Brazil. Together with Banco Rendimento in Sao Paulo, a clearing system based on the RippleNet blockchain is to be launched. This is intended to enable payments to Brazilian companies and individuals to be made without friction and at low cost. The system is compatible with the Brazilian instant payment system PIX, MoneyNetint claims in its blog post.

March 20, 2021

Bravo! MFSA finally takes actions against scam-facilitating payment processor Paytah

And it does move! Finally, the MFSA is acting on the numerous complaints from aggrieved investors about regulated payment processor Phoenix Payments Limited d/b/a Paytah. As reported by FinTelegram, Paytah has knowingly and willingly supported various broker scams with its services. Many victims have lost their money as a result. EFRI, through its Maltese lawyer, has filed complaints with the MFSA and the authorities. Now the MFSA has announced that a Supervisory Action will be taken.

March 19, 2021

CySEC Attention – Regulated Trade360 fishing for clients with fraudulent affiliate services

Once registered with one of the many fraudulent affiliate schemes, our research team is served with literally dozens of new scams every day via email, phone, or social media. Currently, cryptocurrencies are used to lure client-victims. These emails introduce crypto investment opportunities. In fact, you are redirected to scams via websites like Bitcoin Billionaire, Bitcoin Revolution, or Bitcoin Era. But also CySEC-registered CIFs use this fraud service. Yesterday and today, we found Trade360, which use it to get customers to deposit without KYC/AML and false promises.

March 18, 2021

Vienna Cybercrime Trials – Contempt of Court, no remorse, and no more answers!

The second day in the trial against Marina Barak (previously Marina Andreeva), the former CFO of the Israeli-Bulgarian cybercrime organization E&G Bulgaria was being held today. The judges continued their questioning. Moreover, her husband, Gal Barak, was also scheduled to testify. He was already sentenced in September 2020 as principal and CEO of E&G Bulgaria to four years in prison and is currently in prison in Austria. In the run-up, Gal Barak had unpacked and accused his former partners and employees like Ilan Tzorya or Boyan Popov.

March 18, 2021

Latvian Racket Case – Praxis Cashier allegedly terminated merchant agreement with MisterBit

In the last few days, we have reported several times about the Latvian Racket, which operates broker scams via various companies. For example, UK-registered Finex Group Ltd and ZH Companies Bnk Ltd have come to our attention as operators of the broker scams XFinances (www.xfinances.com and www.exfinances.com) and Zurich Invest (www.zurichinvests.com), respectively. The facilitating payment processors, in these scams the Cypriot Praxis Cashier in conjunction with the licensed Estonian MisterBit. Allegedly, Praxis Cashier terminated its business relationship with MisterBit because of our findings.

March 16, 2021

Latvian Racket – CNMV investor warning against XFinances

We issued an investor warning against the XFinances a/k/a eXFinances broker scam a few days ago. Now the Spanish regulator CNMV has also issued a warning against the scam. This scam is operated by Finex Group Ltd, registered in the United Kingdom. According to our findings, this scam is part of the Latvian Racket, a European cybercrime organization with a diverse portfolio of scam activities, including the licensed payment services provider Isunext in Estonia.

March 15, 2021

Maxigrid Case – CySEC receives €75.000 for not finding violations and not supporting victims!

CySEC-regulated investment firm Maxigrid Limited of Roy Almagor and Ekaterina Pedosa is in the spotlight of FinTelegram. Our documents prove beyond any reasonable doubt that Maxigrid processed payments for broker scams through its unlicensed and CySEC-unauthorized crypto platform BitandBuy, as well as through its bank account at Lithuania-based GlobalNetInt UAB. Among those facilitated scams are RoyalsFX or LincolnFX, against which numerous regulators have issued warnings. While the victims are still waiting for their money, the CySEC has settled with Maxigrid and received €75,000 on behalf of the Republic of Cyprus.

March 15, 2021

Vienna Cybercrime Trials – Former Cybercrime CFO Marina Barak opts for “I was in love” strategy

In his opening statement, the prosecutor claims that Marina Barak, along with her husband Gal Barak, was the key person in the cybercrime organization E&G Bulgaria. For example, she assigned the shifts in the boiler rooms, kept the personnel files, and organized the money laundering. She was also responsible for appointing partly homeless people as directors at the Legal Entities to operate the scam brands. According to the prosecution's findings, Marina Barak continued the scam operations after her husband's arrest.