The trial against the ringleaders of Israeli Gal Barak‘s cybercrime organization E&G Bulgaria is currently underway in Munich, Germany. Recently, Barak’s lieutenant Jacki Fitelzon received 82-months prison-time sentencing. Soon Kfir Levy will be tried. Barak was already sentenced to four years in jail in Vienna in Sept 2020. Almost unnoticed, the preparation of charges against several ringleaders of the cybercrime organization around the late Uwe Lenhoff and the Veltyco Group is currently underway in Saarbrücken. Criminal records show that MoneyNetInt was massively involved in Lenhoff’s money laundering.
Case Key Data
The Cybercrime Case
Uwe Lenhoff was an associate of Gal Barak and his partners Gery Shalon and Vladislav Smirnov. Although they ran their independently acting cybercrime organizations, E&G Bulgaria and Veltyco Group, they shared many resources. Both organizations were involved in fraudulent binary options and online brokerage as well as online gambling. Lenhoff had also developed extensive activities in online lotteries with LottoPalace.
The two groups were headquartered in Bulgaria and shared strategic resources:
- In Montenegro, Lenhoff and Barak established the illegal payment processor Global Payment Solutions Podgorcia DOO. They used this entity to launder millions of stolen customer funds.
- Lenhoff, Barak, Shalon and Smirnov have been shareholders of the white-label broker software platform Tradologic that operated Lenhoff’s Option888 and many other scam brands.
Uwe Lenhoff was found dead in his prison cell in the summer of 2020. Cause of death unknown. Murder or suicide can therefore not be ruled out by the authorities. The charges against the other ringleaders of his cybercrime organization will continue anyway. According to the responsible prosecutor Victoria Haenel, it is one of the most significant online cybercrime cases in Germany and Europe.
The MoneyNetInt Connection
FinTelegram now has files of the criminal file of Lenhoff and Veltyco Group. It emerges that, in addition to Global Payment Solutions, MoneyNetInt Ltd was massively involved in the organizations’ money-laundering operations. FCA regulates the Israeli MoneyNetInt with the reference number 900190, it is controlled by the Israeli Trif Family and Raphael Golan.
Read more on MoneyNetInt here!
For example, the operator of numerous scam activities, Hithcliff Ltd, was registered as a merchant with MoneyNetInt. Through the account with Hithcliff at MoneyNetInt, Lenhoff transferred millions to his Bulgarian company Savora Consulting EOOD.
Registered in the UK in 2013 with company registration number 08527923, Hithcliff Ltd was one of the operators of Lenhoff’s vast binary options scams such as Option888, XMarkets, ZoomTrader, TradoVest, or TradeInvest90.
Like Gal Barak, Uwe Lenhoff also had his headquarters in Bulgaria. Lenhoff laundered tens of millions through his two Bulgarian entities, Winslet Enterprises EOOD and Savora Consulting EOOD. The law enforcement investigations revealed that Lenhoff’s organization laundered a significant portion of the loot through MoneyNetInt.
It is currently unknown when the trials will begin and who will be charged. Stay tuned, we will keep you updated!
