Tag: Finolita Unio

As reported by FinTelegram, The Financial Times reported that German prosecutors suspect that more than €100M was stolen from Wirecard via the licensed Lithuanian e-Money Institution (EMI) Finolita Unio. Via this fintech, at least €35M was said to have flowed to fugitive ex-Wirecard executive Jan Marsalek and another €65M to the now insolvent company oCap in Singapore. Today, the Bank of Lithuania announced that the license of Finolita Unio had been revoked for violations of money laundering rules.

Over the years, we have learned that public (open) investigations evolve. Typically, after publishing initial reports or Requests 4 Information (R4I), we receive additional information from whistleblowers and victims. With the new information, we continuously update the reports. Therefore, it has often seemed like a mosaic of information for our readers to piece together. We try to avoid this Mosaic Approach in the future. Therefore, here is a new-form update on the licensed Estonian crypto payment processor Woodstocks OÜ d/b/a Coinmond and FMA Crypto.

The spot is on Lithuania! The Financial Times reported that German prosecutors suspect that more than €100M was stolen from Wirecard via the licensed Lithuanian Finolita Unio. Via this fintech, at least €35M was said to have flowed to fugitive ex-Wirecard executive Jan Marsalek and another €65M to the now insolvent company oCap (previously Senjo Trading) in Singapore. Both Finolita Unio and oCap are part of the Senjo Group, one of Wirecard's most important partners in Asia, and received a loan of €350M from the latter. Finolita Unio CEO Danas Oliskevicius rejects the accusations and blames the German BaFin.

In our researches on scam-facilitating payment processors, Finolita Unio UAB, regulated by the Bank of Lithuania with authorization code LB000490, came to our attention only once as a payment facilitator in the GlobalSpotFX scam with the Estonian Woodstock OÜ (report here). The Financial Times reports that Finolita Unio is part of Senjo Group, a former Wirecard partner through which hundreds of millions have flowed and vanished. More than €100M have been processed through its Lithuanian subsidiary.

We have recently discovered the licensed Estonian crypto payment processor Woodstock OÜ as a payment processor in the Trade Com scams network with GlobalSpotFX, Spotfinex, FXonspot, or TopEuroFX. These scams' victims deposited money through Woodstock's bank accounts with Lithuanian financial institutions Finolita Unio UAB, GlobalNetInt UAB, the Maltese Secure Trading Financial Services Limited, and crypto exchanges. Woodstock is controlled by Marianna Charalampous and does not even have a functioning website.

GlobalSpotFX, Spotfinex, FXonspot, and TopEuroFX are associated with a Trade Com Limited, which does not appear to exist. In January and August 2020, the UK FCA issued investor warnings against the FXonspot scam; in September 2020, the Spanish CNMV. Until recently, the Google App Store offered the Spotfinex trading app. This has been renamed TopEuro FX (www.topeurofx.com) and is still available for download. As facilitating payment processors, we have discovered Payecards and Estonian Woodstock OÜ with the Lithuanian e-Money Institution Finolita Unio.