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Option888 Case: Montenegro Atlas Banka Involved In Money Laundering

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The illegal Binary Options platform Option888 has worked with a variety of payment services providers (PSP). One of them is the Montenegro-based Global Payment Solutions d.o.o., a PSP which has been holding current accounts with the only recently collapsed Atlas Banka. Montenegro’s central bank placed Atlas Banka [MNG: ATBA] under temporary administration due to the bank’s poor financial standing. Moreover, the police found evidence of the bank’s involvement in a vast international money laundering scheme. Allegedly, dozens of individuals and organizations are involved in this criminal scheme.

Money Laundering Big Style

The decision to put the bank under administration was made only weeks ago end of November 2018 after audit results showed that the capital of the bank does not comply with the minimum risk requirements, the central bank announced. Moreover, Montenegro’s central bank CBCG imposed a 45-day moratorium on all payments of troubled Atlas Banka.

Just a few days after the announcement of the bank’s problems, the police in Montenegro announced that it found evidence of big style money laundering with dozens of people and organizations involved. According to an article by Radio Slobodna Evropa, 550 million Euros have been laundered via the bank’s digital payment system.

Montenegro’s Special State Prosecutor’s Office filed said that criminal complaints have been filed against 79 individuals and 95 companies from Montenegro and other countries. Special prosecutor Lidija Vukcevic ordered yesterday the arrest of Atlas Banka’s president
Duško Knežević , three of his current and former associates.

Duško Knežević is the founder and president of the board of directors of Atlas Group Corporation (AGC). AGC is the largest financial group in Montenegro consisting of dozens of companies with far-ranging business interest, including banks and financial companies in Serbia, Cyprus, Russia, and Great Britain.

Already on June 12, 2018, Montenegro’s Special Prosecutor’s Office froze bank accounts of e-commerce clients that are the main source of income for the bank. The bank has a sad history for money laundering and involvement in criminal activities. In October 2018, six employees of Atlas Bank were arrested and detained by the Special Prosecutor’s Office for Organized Crime suspected of money laundering.

Implications For Option888 And Veltyco?

Option888’s partner Global Payment Solutions may have been suffered from these actions. It’s not clear at this point if the freezing of funds is connected with the financial issues of the public-listed UK company VELTYCO group which is Option888 part of. FinTelegram has evidence that payments to the illegally operating binary options platform were made via Atlas Banka.

File Option888 Claims with EFRI Campaign

If you are a victim of Option888 or other illegally operating binary option schemes of the VELTYCO group (ZoomTrader, ZoomTraderGlobal, Xtrader) file your claim with the EFRI Funds Recovery campaign:

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