The Georgia-born Israeli Gery Shalon has been a prominent figure in the world of cybercrime, especially after being labeled as the alleged mastermind behind some of the most significant hacks on the US financial system in the early 2010s. Shalon was also the mastermind behind Gal Barak's cybercrime organization. He allegedly made a deal with the U.S. prosecution and snitched on his former partners.
In the summer of 2020, a Munich court issued a garnishment order to seize the bank accounts of CySEC-regulated Hoch Capital Ltd (file number 1539 M 46463/20). One of the payment processors involved was Deutsche Handelsbank, a notorious scam facilitator. As ordered, Deutsche Handelsbank submitted the data to the court and froze the Hoch Capital Ltd account, which held over €909,000. The company and its individuals are under investigation by German prosecutors on suspicion of investment fraud.
Cyprus Investment Firms (CIF) regulated by CySEC are a problem for the security of the European financial markets. The CySEC CIFs work with illegal offshore mutations, fraudulent marketing campaigns, and target consumers and retail investors in the EU. Now the UK watchdog FCA has banned CySEC-regulated Finteractive Ltd d/b/a FXVC from UK clients. After Brexit, FXVC was allowed to operate under the Temporary Permission Regime (TPR) with the CySEC license in the UK.
FinTelegram has reported on 21 July 2020 that Rodeler Ltd is voluntarily renouncing its CySEC license. Consequently, 24option, the trading style of the broker will also be terminated. On the website of 24option (www.24option.com) customers are informed that the operation will be closed as of August 20, 2020, the "Termination Date." The CySEC announcement states that this license renouncement has already been decided as of July 6, 2020.
The difference between the US regulators and their EU counterparts could not be greater. While the SEC and CFTC have implemented whistleblower programs and act as the advocates of retail investors, the EU regulators leave the victims rather alone in the fight against scammers and online fraudsters.
For several weeks now, the Forex and CFD brokers Rodeler and F1Markets regulated by the Cypriot regulator CySEC have been keeping us busy. More and more whistleblowers are reporting irregularities and worrying details of their business practices. In December 2019, the Italian regulator CONSOB has already banned the luge athletes and their brands from Italy and thus revoked the EU Licence Passporting. Recently the UK FCA has also taken this step for luge, F1Markets, Hoch Capital, and Magnum FX (Cyprus). This forced CySEC to take measures and to order a temporary suspension.