FCA-Restricted Payment Processor Cauri Seems To Go Out Of Business!

FCA-regulated payment institution Cauri has been on the FinTelegram radar for some time. We reported in 2020 that Cauri was one of the payment processors for Gal Barak‘s cybercrime organization. Since the beginning of the year, Cauri has been subject to FCA restrictions that essentially prevent it from doing business with Russians or Russian currency. Since then, Cauri’s business seems to have collapsed.

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The FCA-regulated payment institution Cauri Ltd d/b/a Cauri is apparently controlled via the Cyprus-based E.D.M.S. Trading Limited. We assume that the Russian national Nikolai Ionkin, one of the FCA-regulated entity’s directors, is also a beneficial owner of the Cauri scheme. Another controlling person is the Latvian Aleksandrs “Alexander” Stepanovs. The FCA restricted Cauri from providing payment services to Russian citizens or legal entities in January 2023.

In its restrictions, the FCA said that Cauri must not register, on-board, or provide payment services (either directly or via outsourced partners) to any person categorized as high-risk for the purposes of financial crime risk. In particular, the restrictions state that the company “must not carry out any payment services in relation to, or for the following:“

• a. Russian ruble payments;
• b. Russian residents; or
• c. Russian individuals or legal entities.

With the regulatory restrictions in place, traffic to the Cauri website has plummeted to almost zero. In May 2023, we reported a sharp decline in visitors to the Cauri website in Q2 2023, with over 40% coming from Russia. The latest Similarweb analysis for Q2 2023 shows that access to the Cauri website has collapsed to almost zero. The few visitors come mainly from Russia.

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If you have any information about Cauri and its partners, please let us know through our whistleblower system, Whistle42.