Tag: CryptoPoint

Here's an update on the E&G Bulgaria cybercrime case involving Israelis Gal Barak and Gery Shalon. FinTelegram has been instrumental in uncovering and providing crucial whistleblower information, which led to Barak's arrest in early 2019. While Barak and several of his associates have already been sentenced, further charges are anticipated, potentially implicating Gery Shalon as the true mastermind behind Barak's operations.

Gal Barak, an Israeli cybercrime mastermind, sentenced to four years in prison in Vienna in Sept 2020 for investment fraud and money laundering, was charged in Germany in 2021. His Austrian lawyer appealed the extradition, citing the principle of ne bis in idem. In March 2023, the Court of Justice of the European Union (CJEU) ruled that Barak could be charged in Germany. The German Court still works on the new schedule. Hence, victims are still waiting for justice and restitution payments!

We reported yesterday on the decision of the Court of Justice of the European Union (CJEU) in the Gal Barak case. In 2020, he was convicted and sentenced for investment fraud and money laundering in Austria; additional charges are possible in other jurisdictions. In Germany, Gal Barak and his wife, Marina Barak, are to be charged as ringleaders of the cybercrime organization E&G Bulgaria. Barak had entered a ne bis in idem plea. Apparently unsuccessfully. Thus, German prosecutors can proceed with their charges.

Israeli cybercrime mastermind Gal Barak was sentenced in Vienna in September 2020 to four years imprisonment for investment fraud and money laundering. In 2021, Gal Barak was to be extradited from the Austrian prison to Germany because he was also to be charged there. His lawyer has appealed against this, invoking the principle of ne bis in idem. Today, the Court of Justice of the European Union (CJEU) has ruled that Gal Barak can be charged in Germany.

In Austria, another trial in the environment of Israeli Gal Barak's cybercrime organization E&G Bulgaria will begin in a few weeks. Barak was sentenced in 2020 for investment fraud and money laundering to several years of imprisonment and about €4 million in restitution payments that he has not paid yet. Criminal records show that Gal Barak, his wife, Marina Barak, and his partners, Gery Shalon and Vladislav Smirnov, earned around €38 million between 2017 and 2019 alone.

ING's current subsidiary Payvision will close in 2023. The reason for this was the massive involvement of Payvision in cybercrime and money laundering activities under its founder and former CEO Rudolf Booker. Booker sold Payvision to ING for around €350 million in 2018. How unabashedly Booker did business with cybercrime organizations as CEO is shown files from the criminal proceedings against convicted fraudster Gal Barak. Here is a remarkable scene from the criminal file!

The 35-year-old Israeli Gal Barak has shown how helpless the E.U. is in the fight against cybercrime. Barak, along with U.S. defendant Gery Shalon and Russian Vladislav Smirnov, ran a global network of binary options and CFD broker scams, defrauding tens of thousands of victims of more than $200M. In Sept 2020, he was sentenced to a four-year prison term but released on bail after just one year. Upon his release, a private jet flew him to Israel, where he announced plans to launch a $20 million cybercrime fund to benefit from cybercrime energy!

Gal Barak was sentenced in the Vienna Cybercrime Trials as one of the masterminds behind the cybercrime organization E&G Bulgaria to four years in prison and millions in restitution payments for investment fraud and money laundering. His Bulgarian wife Marina Barak faces the same charges and is currently on trial. Gal Barak gave false testimony at the trial of his wife and was consequently charged by the prosecution for that. As private prosecutors, the EFRI lawyer and its principal Elfriede Sixt accompany the trials representing the victims' voice!

Israeli Gal Barak was sentenced to four years in prison for investment fraud and money laundering as one of the principals of the cybercrime organization E&G Bulgaria in the Vienna Cybercrime Trials in September 2020. His wife, Marina Barak, is also charged and is currently on trial. Gal Barak is currently being extradited to Germany, where he will also be charged. In Germany, a former Bulgarian co-conspirator responsible for dozens of victims as boiler room manager is already waiting in prison. This Bulgarian going by the stage name James Morra earned a small fortune by defrauding unsuspecting victims.

In early September 2020, Gal Barak, the Wolf of Sofia, was sentenced to four years in prison and reparations payments for investment fraud and money laundering. The Israeli principal of the cybercrime organization of E&G Bulgaria is responsible for tens of thousands of scam victims. Now the charges against his partner and wife Marina Barak became legally effective. She is accused of money laundering. The trial will start early next year.

The Israeli Gal Barak was sentenced to four years in prison in the Vienna Cybercrime Trials ("#VCT"). The court ordered that the seized funds and assets be used for restitution payments to the victims. Currently, this is a few million and thus only a fraction of the stolen funds. Millions of the Gal Barak's scams were processed via the Austrian-Ukraine payment processor Fondy, which is controlled by the former head of the Vienna Stock Exchange Stefan Zapotocky.

The Vienna Cybercrime Trials are over for now. The honorable court today found the Israeli Gal Barak guilty of investment fraud and money laundering. He was sentenced to a 4-year-prison term. He was accused of being a principal of the international cybercrime organization E&G Bulgaria, through which he ran binary options and broker scams with his wife Marina Barak and a team of mostly Israeli co-conspirators. It is an extraordinarily important judgment in terms of general prevention and a strong signal to the scammer scene.