The German Uwe Lenhoff, a founder of the public Veltyco Group PLC, was arrested in January 2019 on charges of financial crime, money laundering, and investment fraud. He is currently in custody in Germany, waiting for his indictment and jury trial. In addition to Lenhoff, four other people are to be charged. The authorities accuse Lenhoff and his partners of forming a criminal organization to carry out their illicit activities. The public Veltyco Group PLC and the persons acting are also at the center of these activities. From the information available to FinTelegram Lenhoff is snitching on the Veltyco management and the company’s main shareholders.
LottoPalace, Softlotto and the poisoned bonus pill
Veltyco was also responsible for marketing the LottoPalace platform within its Lottery Vertical. FinTelegram and its European Funds Recovery Initiative (EFRI) have received numerous complaints from customers who do not get their money from LottoPalace. Some customers report that they have lost hundreds of thousands of euros. Like the broker scams Option888, XMarkets or TradoVest, LottoPalace has also enticed customers to deposit money with an attractive sounding bonus system.
These bonus payments, however, were one of the traps to trick clients into the scheme. Anyone who claimed and/or received bonuses had to fulfill numerous requirements before payouts of principle or bonus were possible. For example, for each bonus payment received, a multiple of the bonus volume of transactions had to be made before (even theoretically) the bonus payments and/or the deposited money was due for withdrawals. In fact, customers were taken hostage by bonus credits on these platforms and forced to make more and more payments. The customers were not informed about these consequences and bonus credits were often booked without the prior consent of the customers, which meant that they were trapped.
The LottoPalace platform was developed by Lenhoff’s Softlotto Ltd in Malta. The company was also the white label provider for the
Amit Giorini and Miriam Sahl
Who are the trading people behind LottoPalace? That’s an interesting question with surprising answers.
Managing Director of SoftLotto Ltd is the Israeli Amit Giorini (LinkedIn profile). According to Lenhoff, payments from LottoPalace are allegedly coordinated by Lehnhoff’s sister Miriam Sahl. She allegedly carried out the LottoPalace activities in close coordination with Uwe Lenhoff and Veltyco board member Rainer
The Bulgarian Winslet Enterprises – the real Veltyco
As with the operation of Bet90 or the various broker scams, Lehnhoff’s Bulgarian Winslet Enterprises EOOD was also the actual operator of LottoPalace. Veltyco, listed on the stock exchange, was always just a Potemkin village to attract investors and mislead the authorities. Lenhoff himself says in his statements to the authorities that Veltyco did not even have a bank account and that he controlled the group through Winslet Enterprises. The managing director of Winslet Enterprises, the Bulgarian Martina Martinova Shishkova, was also authori
In Bulgaria Lenhoff and his Veltyco also had the Varkasso EOOD. This is a joint venture with the Austrian software developer Joachim Kalcher. Varkasso was originally founded by Lenhoff in 2017 and sold to Kalcher at the beginning of 2018. He then sold 51% to Veltyco for €300,000 and holds the remaining 49% as the beneficial owner through a Bulgarian company. Kalcher apparently only received part of the money. In this Varkasso, Lenhoff wanted to develop a cryptographic payment system for its illegal platforms. It would have made money laundering easier.
There should be no room for misunderstanding at this point. Therefore, it is once again clearly stated that not only Lenhoff knew about this public-listed Potemkin’s village and the illegality of the cyberscams around Veltyco, but also the entire Veltyco board as well as the main shareholders of the company. Pointing to Lenhoff would not only be an inadmissible simplification but would also tamper with the view of those liable for compensation for the fraudulent investors and customers.
Funds recovery for investors and customers
Against this background, retail investors can address their claims to the beneficial owners and operators of the broker scams and LottoPalace – the listed Veltyco Group PLC and Winslet Enterprises EOOD. Statements and documents have suggested the initial hypothesis that the acting persons of both companies were well-informed about the scams and supported them in their respective capacity. In this respect, these persons are also personally liable for the damage suffered by the investors and customers of this platform.
It is now known that Veltyco’s short-term CEO, Melissa Blau of the United States, has resigned because of the irregularities and illegal business practices identified by Veltyco. Or to put it more precisely – Blau has decided to run away. That speaks for her.
In our view, Marcel Noordeloos, Gilles Ohana, Rainer Lauffs or Hans Dahlgren and Falk Preussner are to regarded as Lenhoff’s co-conspirators and thus personally responsible for the claims for damages of clients and investors of the platforms managed by Veltyco. All of them have been involved in the Veltyco scheme and facilitated it with their support.
