Tag: Roger Knox

The U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) obtained a final judgment against Michael Gastauer, the German founder of the Black Banx scheme, for his role in an international scheme that generated more than $165 million of illegal sales of stock on the U.S. markets in at least 50 microcap companies. He is ordered to pay over $17 million. In 2018, the SEC charged Gastauer and six of his US-based entities with aiding and abetting a vast securities fraud scheme orchestrated by UK citizen Roger Knox.

German prosecutors have not yet brought charges against the crypto-fraud scheme OneCoin and its principals, but are now taking action against the German payment processors involved. This is a somewhat strange approach and legally contestable. The public prosecutor's office in Bielefeld has brought charges against three people for money laundering for the OneCoin scam. which is not yet legally binding. German payment processors processed more than €360 million for the OneCoin Ponzi scheme.

Until recently, Germany had a good reputation in the financial sector although its banking industry has significant structural problems. All the more reason to be proud of Wirecard. The DAX-listed German fintech managed by the two Austrians Markus Braun and Jan Marsalek seemed to be the superstar in the booming market of next-generation payment processors. Until it collapsed. But there are several dubious German fintechs and payment processors that are active in the worldwide cybercrime scene. Michael Gastauer and his group of companies should be mentioned here.

On January 13, 2020, the U.S. Department of Justice announced that the British citizen Roger "Rocket" Knox, 49, founder and operator of Swiss asset management firm Wintercap pleaded guilty to securities fraud and conspiracy to commit securities fraud. His co-conspirators Matthew Ledvina, Milan Patel and Morrie Tobin have also pleaded guilty and await sentencing. According to the U.S. regulator SEC, Knox's scheme used Michael Gastauer's Black Banx (previosly "WB21") group of companies to launder the scheme's illicit proceeds. Knox was arrested in October 2018 and remains in custody until the scheduled sentencing the court ordered.