Tag: Marina Andreeva

Here's an update on the E&G Bulgaria cybercrime case involving Israelis Gal Barak and Gery Shalon. FinTelegram has been instrumental in uncovering and providing crucial whistleblower information, which led to Barak's arrest in early 2019. While Barak and several of his associates have already been sentenced, further charges are anticipated, potentially implicating Gery Shalon as the true mastermind behind Barak's operations.

German prosecutors issued an arrest warrant for Israeli Chen Ganon last year. The arrest warrant was suspended on bail. There is already an indictment and the trial will follow shortly. Ganon was one of the lieutenants of convicted cybercrime mastermind Gal Barak. As the manager in charge of the SafeMarkets scam Ganon was responsible for thousands of victims worldwide from whom millions were stolen. Ganon ran the boiler room behind SafeMarkets in Sarajevo, Bosnia-Herzegovina.

We reported yesterday on the decision of the Court of Justice of the European Union (CJEU) in the Gal Barak case. In 2020, he was convicted and sentenced for investment fraud and money laundering in Austria; additional charges are possible in other jurisdictions. In Germany, Gal Barak and his wife, Marina Barak, are to be charged as ringleaders of the cybercrime organization E&G Bulgaria. Barak had entered a ne bis in idem plea. Apparently unsuccessfully. Thus, German prosecutors can proceed with their charges.

ING's current subsidiary Payvision will close in 2023. The reason for this was the massive involvement of Payvision in cybercrime and money laundering activities under its founder and former CEO Rudolf Booker. Booker sold Payvision to ING for around €350 million in 2018. How unabashedly Booker did business with cybercrime organizations as CEO is shown files from the criminal proceedings against convicted fraudster Gal Barak. Here is a remarkable scene from the criminal file!

Israeli Gal Barak, as principal of the E&G Bulgaria cybercrime organization, was sentenced in Vienna in September 2020 to several years in prison and more than €4 million in restitution. He was released on parole in the fall of 2021 and reportedly returned to Israel by private jet. There he established the Vantage Fund for convicted cybercriminals. His lieutenant Maor Sioni recently got married in Israel. Gal Barak plus his E&G Bulgaria gang were invited and pictured.

In September 2020, Israeli Gal Barak was sentenced to four years in prison for investment fraud and money laundering by a court in Vienna. He was released on parole in 2021 and has since founded the Vantage fund in Israel, which aims to finance convicted cybercriminals and their startups. However, German prosecutors also charged Barak as a principal of the cybercrime organization E&G Bulgaria. The case is currently before the European Court of Justice.

Gal Barak was sentenced in Sept 2020 as the mastermind of cybercrime organization E&G Bulgaria to several years in prison and some €4 million in restitution payments to victims of the scams. He has been on parole for a few months. In an interview with the Israeli Calcalist, Barak claimed that he would have compensated his victims as ordered by the court. That is a lie, he has not compensated any of his victims. Instead, he evidently used the stolen millions to establish a $20 million cybercrime fund.

The E&G Bulgaria Cybercrime Scheme is dealt with by German prosecutor Nino Goldbeck in Bamberg. The German prosecutor informed that the boiler room agent Sasa Siler has also been charged for allegedly defrauding German-speaking victims with OptionStarsGlobal, XTraderFX, or Trade Capital. The mastermind behind E&G Bulgaria was the Israeli Gal Barak with his wife Marina Barak and their partners Gery Shalon and Vladislav Smirnov.

Update: we have been informed that Ben Gettemans was not only the personal driver of Gal Barak but also...

Maor Sioni has referred to Gal Barak's cybercrime organization E&G Bulgaria as his family. In proper mafia parlance. Sioni was one of the family's executives. Another executive, Tal-Jacki Fitelzon is currently standing trial in Munich, Germany. The indictment accuses him of being a ringleader of the cybercrime organization E&G Bulgaria, which allegedly defrauded tens of thousands of consumers worldwide out of more than €200 million with its scams. Jacki has already pleaded guilty to this charge as a ringleader of the Mafia family.

Israeli Gal Barak is a nice and funny guy in private. But yet his business is scams and online investment fraud. He was one of the cybercrime organization E&G Bulgaria principals and was sentenced to four years in prison by a court in September 2020. He was the Wolf of Sofia! Remarkably friendly sentencing given the alleged €200 million his victims' losses amounts to. His Israeli lieutenants Tal-Jacki "Jacki" Fitelzon and Kfir Levy, are currently in pre-trial detainment in Germany. The trial against "Jacki" will start on November 22, 2021, in Munich. Others will follow suit. Another update!

In 2015, U.S. prosecutors charged the Georgia-born Israeli citizen Gery "Gabi" Shalon in a twenty-three count Superseding Indictment. He was charged with computer hacking, securities fraud, aggravated identity theft, illegal online gambling, illegal money transmitting business, and money laundering. Most of the files are still unsealed. What is known now is that in April 2017, Shalon has pled guilty to all 23 counts and made a plea deal with prosecutors that included transferring all seized funds and assets to the United States. We are talking about a real big fortune. We are talking about a real big fortune including a $74.7M bank account.