Finally! The Bank of Lithuania (BoL) today announced that it launched a probe into scam-facilitating Epayblock. It was about time! We informed the public and the regulator time and again about the bad activities of this Polish-Lithuanian e-Money Institution. In its investigation, BoL will check possible breaches of money laundering and terrorist financing prevention. Epaybank's activities will be partially restricted during the investigation. BoL said that it received information that some of Epayblock's customers may be using its services for fraudulent purposes. Sure they do!
The notoriously well-known Deutsche Handelsbank has been in the FinTelegram focus over the last three years. Like ING's Dutch subsidiary Payvision and, until its collapse, Wirecard, the bank was a prime address for scammers and cybercrime organizations. Uwe Lenhoff, who died in prison in 2020, was one of the clients of Deutsche Handelsbank and used the bank to launder the illicit proceeds of his huge lotto scam LottoPalace. Now the German financial institution seems to be about to its dirty payment division.
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.
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!
Amid the hype of binary options, CFDs, and crypto trading, many FinTech entrepreneurs have picked up e-Money Institution licenses in Lithuania. Like Eyal Nachum with his Bruc Bond and International Fintech. Well, they lost the license and went to Singapore. However, MoneyNetint Group and its GlobalNetInt are still there; regulated! Most recently, Epayblock caught our attention because it is repeatedly involved in broker scams as a payment processor. We would like to know more about Epayblock.
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.
High-risk payment processor PXP Financial Limited is systematically developing its partner network to enter the attractive U.S. market. In December 2020, the company announced a partnership with MoneyNetInt Group to expand cross-border payments. Now it has partnered with U.S. gaming operator BetMGM, a joint venture between MGM Resorts and Entain. PXP Financial used to be part of the British Entain group until 2017 and is currently a Singapore-based Senjō Group member company.
The Estonian regulatory regime had been a severe issue for the EU since the inception of its crypto license program some three years ago. Even though the Estonian Ministry of Finance recently announced that its FIU revoked more than 1,000 licenses, there are still about 400 regulated crypto payment companies active in the market billing themselves as "EU-regulated" payment processors. Companies like BlueData OÜ, or Lipan Services OÜ facilitate and/or operate scams. These companies are also customers of the Lithuanian GlobalNetInt which is part of the network.
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!
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.
Regulated by the FCA with reference No 504318, PXP Financial Limited as an Authorized Payment Institution was originally founded as Kalixa Accept Limited by Austria's Bwin. Following the acquisition of Bwin by public-listed GVC Holdings PLC, Kalixa was sold to Senjo Group for €29 million in late 2019 and renamed PXP Financial. The company recently announced its cooperation with FCA-regulated MoneyNetInt Group. Senjo Group was one of the largest - and, according to the Financial Times (FT), most opaque - partners of the collapsed Wirecard.
Regulated by the FCA with reference No 504318, PXP Financial Limited as an Authorized Payment Institution was originally founded as Kalixa Accept Limited by Austria's Bwin. Following the acquisition of Bwin by public-listed GVC Holdings PLC, Kalixa was sold to Senjo Group for €29 million in late 2019 and renamed PXP Financial. The company recently announced its cooperation with FCA-regulated MoneyNetInt Group. Senjo Group was one of the largest - and, according to the Financial Times (FT), most opaque - partners of the collapsed Wirecard.