Tag: Fincana

As reported previously, the Lithuanian Financial Crime Investigation Service (FCIS) has imposed a record fine on the payment processor Payeer, totaling nearly €9.3 million, for significant breaches of international sanctions and anti-money laundering (AML) regulations. This development corroborates FinTelegram's previous investigations into Payeer's Russian connections and its role in laundering money for scammers, further solidifying FinTelegram's reputation as a leading financial intelligence provider.

Over the last 3 years, FinTelegram exposed the Russian-controlled crypto payment processor Payeer as a payment processor for various broker scams. In January 2023, the Estonian FIU considered the revocation of Payeer's crypto license due to identified deficiencies. However, Payeer decided to renounce their license voluntarily and registered crypto service provider in Lithuania. We found more information about the related individuals and company history.

We have been following the activities of the high-risk payment processor Payeer for several years now. Payeer is operated through Payeer OÜ, which holds an Estonian crypto license, and Paycorp Limited, registered in Vanuatu by the VFSC. Most recently, we discovered Payeer as a payment processor at many Russian high-risk merchants such as Express Wallet or Taxi Money. In recent months, an average of 25% of website visitors came from Russia.

Payment processor Payeer, which operates with an Estonian crypto license, has been on our radar since 2021, having been a facilitator in various broker scams. Until June 2022, Russian Liubov Svezhentseva was officially registered as the beneficial owner and director. After our last report, new Estonian individuals were again registered as beneficial owners and directors. We may justifiably conclude that they are acting as nominees for the real owners. Here is the update.

As is well known, the Western Allies have largely excluded Russia from SWIFT. In addition, Visa and MasterCard have also blocked services for Russian companies. Theoretically, the numerous Russian payment processors in the high-risk and cybercrime segment should no longer work. Many Russian payment processors operate via licensed Estonian crypto payment processors such as Volrix OÜ d/b/a SafeCurrency or Fincana OÜ d/b/a Payeer.

Digital currencies are the future in one way or another. For a few months now, online payment pioneer PayPal has also been accepting bitcoins and other cryptocurrencies. Estonia is currently the epicenter of European crypto payment processors. As of mid-2020, the Estonian FIU had issued more than 3,000 licenses (report here). Unfortunately, many of them are used to facilitate scams and illegal payment services. We have drafted a list of Estonian crypto payment companies that have come to our attention in scams.

Fincana OÜ, a crypto payment processor, licensed in Estonia by the Financial Intelligence Unit (FIU) as the competent regulator, operates the payment processor Payeer (www.payeer.com) together with Paycorp Limited, which is registered in Vanuatu and licensed by the VFSC. This payment processor has increasingly appeared as a scam facilitator over the last couple of months. For example, in the scams of the Capital Letter group against which regulators issued numerous warnings. The beneficial owner of Payeer is the Russian Liubov Svezhentseva.

Against the German Capital Letter GmbH and its network of offshore entities and scams such as BrightFinance, SolidInvest, GFXRoyal, STSRoyal, STSCrypto, or GFXFinance, various European regulators such as the UK FCA (here), BaFin (here), or the FMA (here) have already warned and issued Cease and Desist Orders over the last months. The Italian Consob has ordered a blackout of the sites (here). However, the scammers are unimpressed. Some scams are still active. Now the UK Financial Conduct Authority (FCA) issued a new warning.