Tag: Fenice Holding

The Italian Alpesh Patel has been appointed as a director of the MFSA-regulated Phoenix Payments Ltd, d/b/a Paytah. The regulator approved this appointment. One fails to understand how the MFSA and the FIAU have so far failed in clamping down Paytah. According to the former Chief Compliance Officer Daniela Pesci, the Maltese payment processor is being investigated by Interpol for money laundering issues. She filed public court documents against Paytah at Malta Courts show that she had her job terminated as soon as she flagged serious regulatory shortcomings.

Following the Paytah case, one fails to understand how the Malta Financial Services Authority (MFSA) and the Financial Intelligence Analysis Unit (FIAU) have failed to clamp down Phoenix Payments Limited d/b/a Paytah. Interpol investigates the MFSA-regulated high-risk payment processor, Paytah's former Chief Legal and Compliance Officer (CCO) claims. She is currently under the protection of the Maltese Whistleblower Act, but Paytah is still licensed. The public court documents show that she had her job terminated as soon as she raised material AML/KYC issues.

Phoenix Payments Ltd provides payments services d/b/a as Paytah. Between 2019 and 2020, the payment processor has been processing hundreds of thousands of euros from victims of LincolnFX, RoyalsFX, CodexFX, and other scams. The legal entities behind these scams have been clients of Paytah. The company directors are the Italian Marco Lavanna, the Maltese Keith Farrugia, and Spaniard Francesc Xavier Alabart Lopez. The payment processor's beneficial owner is payment veteran Marco Lavanna through his Swiss-registered firm named Fenice Holding SA.