FinTelegram reported on the strange case surrounding the binary options scam Tradorax in October 2023. Two Israelis had been arrested and charged by German authorities for investment fraud with Tradorax. They in turn accuse their former lawyers of stealing 2300 Bitcoins from them. On Twitter it is now claimed that one of the lawyers, Guy Yuval, was the owner of the Singapore-regulated payment processor Opal and had laundered funds through it. It’s a whodunit.
The Tradorax Trials
The trials against the vast binary options scheme Tradorax (picture right) started in Oct 2022 in Germany. The prosecutors filed charges against the Israeli boiler room operators Avi Itzkovich, a/k/a Avi Itzkovitz, and James Henry “Jack” Wygodzki, a/k/a Jack Wygotzki.
While the two were in pre-trial custody in Germany, Wygodzki filed a lawsuit against Israeli lawyers and a broker, claiming that they stole about 2,300 Bitcoins (currently worth $53M) from him. Itzkovitz and Wygodzki had previously stolen these from their scam victims.
The Israeli Lawsuit
Wygodzki’s lawsuit claims that after Avi Itzkovitz‘s arrest, he got scared and asked the lawyers, Guy Yuval, Ori Arad, a/k/a Uri Arad, and Racheli Unger from the law firm Yuval Aron (website), to help him. They would have convinced him to transfer the Bitcoins to them and promised to sell them for him and transfer the money to him.
In return, they would have provided him with false documents and allowed him to hide in Portugal. From there, Jack Wygodzki wanted to flee to South America. However, this did not happen. Neither the money nor the Bitcoins were returned to him. And he was arrested!
The Scammers’ Lawyer
According to our information, Israeli lawyer Moshe Strugano – whom we already know from many scams as a consultant and who had issued legal opinions for the scammers in Tradorax scam to facilitate their scams – advised Wygodzki to turn himself into the authorities. Allegedly, according to people close to Wygodzki, Moshe Strugano had advised him that the case against him in Germany was weak.
The Tradorax platform was initially launched in 2013 by Alagos Limited (Gibraltar) under the domain www.tradorax.com. After the first public warnings, Tradorax switched its operating entity. Starting in 2015, AM Capital Ltd, founded in Anguilla and later transferred to the Marshall Islands, allegedly operated the binary options scam. Moshe Strugano issued the necessary legal opinions.
The Vanished Bitcoins
The fact should be that Bitcoins have disappeared. The lawyers and the broker involved, Miki Hefetz, deny everything and claim that they wanted to cooperate with the German authorities to secure the funds. Wygodzki’s lawsuit would only be an attempt to prevent them from doing so.
However, there is a rumor in the Israeli scene that Moshe Strugano cooperated with the two defendant lawyers and the broker. In return, he is said to be getting a share of the “loot.” An interesting rumor, but one that we cannot confirm.
Share Information
If you have any information about Tradorax, Avi Itzkovitz, Jack Wygodzki, Guy Yuval, or the missing Bitcoins, please let us know via our whistleblower system, Whistle42.
