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Tag: GNI

November 23, 2021

Bravo! Lithuanian regulator follows FinTelegram and revokes license of Epayblock!

FinTelegram has issued several warnings against the notorious scam and cybercrime facilitator Epayblock, an e-Money Institution regulated by the Bank of Lithuania (BoL). Finally, the regulator announced that it revoked the license of Epayblock due to money laundering issues. The regulator said that it received complaints and information about Epayblock customers potentially using its services for fraud. It initiated the investigation and obtained court permission to apply temporary restrictions on the provision of services to its customers.

June 26, 2021

Lithuanian compliance issue or why GlobalNetInt is grateful for its penalization

A penalty is usually not an occasion for gratitude. That would also make the purpose of a punishment absurd. Usually, one is grateful for a received punishment only if one is aware that one has gotten away well with this punishment and should actually have been punished much worse. A driver who is speeding while massively impaired by alcohol or other drugs certainly grateful is grateful if he is punished by the police only for speeding and not for the offense of driving under the influence (DUI). Similarly, GlobalNetInt (GNI) shows itself grateful for the penalization by the Bank of Lithuania.

June 25, 2021

Bank of Lithuania fines GlobalNetInt for violating money-laundering rules and restricts business

The Lithuanian-Israeli e-Money Institution GlobalNetInt, part of the FCA-regulated MoneyNetint Group, was fined by the Bank of Lithuania for its violations of anti-money laundering and terrorist activities financing rules. GNI has to pay €350,000 because it did not properly assess the risk posed by customers and did not always ensure that customer identification remotely complied with legal requirements. GNI, focused on high-risk clients, does not rely on information from a reliable and independent source when verifying the documents and information on beneficiaries. No surprise here!

June 23, 2021

Lithuanian Compliance Issue – Findiban website switched into maintenance mode

The Lithuanian Liudvikas Kulikauskas is the co-founder, CEO, and shareholder of GlobalNetInt (GNI), an e-Money Institution regulated by the Bank of Lithuania. Additionally, he and his wife Egle Kulikauskiene launched the payment processor Ifind MB d/b/a Findiban, which was apparently positioned as a high-risk payment processor, offering businesses a range of financial services, including SEPA IBAN account, white-label FinTech services, or credit card processing. Currently, the Findiban website is in maintenance mode and hence down.

May 22, 2021

Research Update on Estonian crypto payment processor and scam-facilitator Woodstocks

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.

May 17, 2021

Wirecard, Finolita Unio, and the Lithuanian Connection

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.

May 6, 2021

GlobalNetInt CEO launched new financial services venture Findiban

Liudvikas Kulikauskas, founder, CEO, and shareholder of GlobalNetInt UAB (GNI), an e-Money Institution (EMI) regulated by the Bank of Lithuania with authorization code LB000434, has founded a payment processor Ifind MB d/b/a Findiban (www.findiban.com), together with his wife, Egle Kulikauskiene. The company is apparently positioned as a high-risk payment processor, offering businesses a range of financial services, including SEPA IBAN account, white-label FinTech services, or credit card processing.

March 26, 2021

Follow the money – Global Markets scam proceeds laundered via GlobalNetInt

We have recently reported on the GlobalMarkets (a/k/a Glob Markets) broker scam, which has been highly active over the last few years but seems to be disappearing. The scam was operated under various domains by Cubic Services Ltd, Seychelles. Numerous regulators have warned against the scam and the operator since 2019. Despite these public warnings, how could the scam still steal customer funds? If you follow the money trail, you again end up with MoneyNetint Group (MNI) and its GlobalNetInt (GNI) in Lithuania.

March 21, 2021

High-Risk payment processor MoneyNetint goes Brazil with RippleNet

MoneyNetint, the FCA-regulated Israeli e-Money institution around Yishay Trif and Raphael Golan, announced a new payment service for merchants doing business with Brazil. Together with Banco Rendimento in Sao Paulo, a clearing system based on the RippleNet blockchain is to be launched. This is intended to enable payments to Brazilian companies and individuals to be made without friction and at low cost. The system is compatible with the Brazilian instant payment system PIX, MoneyNetint claims in its blog post.

January 3, 2021

A Lithuanian Case – Compliance Issues, Law Enforcement, and Whistleblower Protection

FinTelegram lives on whistleblowers and fights together with them against scammers, cybercriminals, and money launderers. Protecting whistleblowers is FinTelegram's highest priority. We are aware that whistleblowers are hated and threatened by the villains they expose. Currently, whistleblowers in Lithuania who have provided valuable information to FinTelegram about scams, cybercrime, and money-laundering are being massively threatened. We are here to help and support them!

December 20, 2020

AML: Another Chief Compliance Officer departs from GlobalNetInt

Lithuanian GlobalNetInt has had an audit from the Bank of Lithuania in recent months. The company focused on high-risk clientele appears to have compliance, KYC, and AML issues. Among the clients are many forex and crypto firms as well as payment processors associated with and/or facilitating scams. The problems with compliance were also confirmed to us by a consultant. Now the Chief Compliance Officer (CCO) is also said to have left the company.

November 6, 2020

Law and Tax Enforcement Actions – Start with Payment Processors to chase cybercriminals

FinTelegram is frequently contacted by law enforcement agencies in various jurisdictions with requests for information. It has become known in the international law enforcement scene that FinTelegram has indeed valuable information and contacts. In our respective discussions, we recommend starting enforcement actions against facilitating payment processors. They are the backbone and payment data hubs of the ever-expanding cybercrime universe and its scams.