The online magazine PayRate42 News reported that DPO Pay, a Dublin-based payments processor founded in 2006 by Eran Feinstein and Offer Gat, has received approval from the Bank of Tanzania to operate as a Payment Service Provider. In 2021, DPO Pay was acquired by Network International (NI), a Dubai-based payments provider, for $291.3 million. DPO Pay had interesting connections to Wirecard and the binary options scheme GreyMountain Management Ltd (GMM).
The Ulysses House Connection
The Ulysses House in Dublin was the headquarters of Wirecard UK & Ireland but also of GreyMountain Management (GMM), the operator of a huge binary options fraud network controlled by the Cartu brothers. And the Africa-focused payment processor DPO Group was also based there.
Looking back, the Ulysses House in Dublin, Ireland, was the epicenter of the European online payment scene between 2005 and 2016, with a special focus on high-risk merchants and binary options operators. Many of these binary options operators such as GMM have since turned out to be fraudulent and defrauded tens of thousands of customers worldwide out of hundreds of millions. A significant portion of this stolen money was laundered through the Ulysses House.
The DPO Connection
Direct Pay Online (‘DPO’) Group, founded in 2006, is an online payment service provider focused on Sub-Saharan Africa.
In 2012, 3G Direct Pay Limited d/b/a DPO Pay was incorporated in Ireland to address the European market. Eran Feinstein and Offer Gat were appointed as directors. In 2016, 3G Direct Pay Holdings Limited was founded.
CPO appointed Moore, an international firm of accountants, to assist with the formation of 3G Direct Pay Limited in 2012 and became the auditor of 3G Direct Pay Limited. Andy Quinn was the audit partner at Moore for 3G Direct Pay Limited from 2013 until 2016. Quinn was part of the Ulysses House Connection around Wirecard.
DPO had the Dublin offices in the same office building, Ulysses House, as Wirecard UK & Ireland and the binary options scam operators GreyMountain Managemend Ltd (GMM).
in 2016, the private equity firm APIS acquired a majority stake in the DPO Group. After the investment, its annual processing volume skyrocketed from around $50 million to an impressive $2 billion. The surged from a mere 8,000 to more than 59,000 in 2020.
In 2013, DPO acquired German payment processor AconaOnline from former Wirecard executive Dietmar Knoechelmann. This transaction caused some irritation following the acquisition of DPO by Dubai-based Network International (NI). The so-called ShadowFall short-sellers have attacked the publicly traded NI for its Ulysses House Connection (see letter left).
In September 2021, public-listed payments company Network International finalised the acquisition of 100% of DPO Group for US$ 291 million.
The GMM Connection & The Irish Court Order
According to an extensive NI statement, Bob Richmond and Liam Grainger, back than officers at Greymountain Management Ltd (GMM), established 3G Direct Pay Holdings Limited in 2016.
GMM was the operator and payment processor for a vast binary options scam scheme controlled by the Cartu brothers. In 2020, the US CFTC filed a fraud complaint against GMM and its operators.
In a landmark ruling in Oct 2022, the Irish High Court found that the Canadian-Israeli brothers David Cartu and Jonathan Cartu were shadow directors of GMM who had “syphoned off considerable sums of money,” leaving it just €600,000 to fulfill its obligations. Additionally, the two former Irish directors of GMM, Ryan Coates and Liam Grainger, were found jointly liable for investor losses due to their “complete dereliction of duty.”
Read our GMM court report here.
Ryan Coates is the son of then Wirecard director Michelle Molloy. She in turn was also appointed as a director in another company owned by the Cartu brothers. There were very close personal and business links between Wirecard in Ireland and GMM at Ulysses House.
The Wirecard Connection
The Irish auditor Andy Quinn also plays an interesting role in the Ulysses House Connection. Initially, he was a director of Knoechelmann’s Gateway Payments Holdings Limited (screenshot right). This company was bought by Wirecard in 2006 in a mysterious deal in which tens of millions were paid out. The company was renamed Wirecard Payments Solutions Holdings Limited. Knoechelmann was appointed CEO.
The same Andy Quinn was also involved in the formation and audit of DPO Pay. Specifically, according to Network International‘s account (link), as an audit partner of Moore International, he “was engaged by DPO to assist with the formation of 3G Direct Pay Limited in 2012 and became the auditor of 3G Direct Pay Limited.“
Alongside, Knoechelmann, Andy Quinn was the co-director to the business, that was sold to Wirecard, which then became Wirecard UK and Ireland. Until 2017, Andy Quinnaudited DPO (since then Quinn’s associate has performed the audit). DPO itself was originally incorporated with Liam Grainger as secretary and Bob Richmond as its Director.
ShadowFall research report (link)
In 2009, Knoechelmann left Wirecard. In 2013, he sold his German-registered payment processor AconaOnline to DPO. Curiously, AconaOnline (AO) had its German offices at the same address as “Inatec Solutions GmbH, a company associated with DK and Ruediger Trautmann (“RT”), another former Wirecard executive who left Wirecard in 2010. DK ceased to be a director of AO on the date of the transaction. Later, and unconnected in any way to DPO or AO, DK was convicted for wrongdoing in 2016,” the Network International report states.
DPO has been a customer of certain European payment companies (“acquirers”) that are, or may have been, connected with Dietmar Knoechelmann or certain of his associates (together with Acona, the “Relevant Entities”). Dietmar Knoechelmann was convicted for wrongdoing unrelated to DPO, as was another individual, who had, prior to his conviction, become a minority shareholder of DPO in or around 2012 and currently owns 1.24% of DPO.
Network International RNS
In 2016, the Israel Credit Card Company (ICC-CAL), under the control of Israel Discount Bank, faced criminal charges related to the fraudulent processing of payments for adult content and gambling sites between 2006 and 2009. In a plea deal, Dietmar Knoechelmann admitted to assisting ICC-Cal and its senior executives in committing fraud as part of a plea agreement in Israel.
The ICC-CAL credit card fraud was unrelated to DPO and Wirecard. However, Knoechelmann was a top executive at Wirecard and CEO of Wirecard Payment Solutions Holdings Ltd during that time. The situation was likened to an executive from Deutsche Bank being caught in a crime while representing another bank, as reported by The Financial Times.
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