In December 2021, Fintelegram informed that the Austrian Financial Market Authority (FMA) revoked the license of crypto exchange XTrader24. According to the regulator, there were numerous severe violations of the Money Laundering Act. The XTrader24 case becomes spectacular when you look at the Wirecard background of its actors, the former police officers Christoph Gsottbauer and Markus Sperr. On Twitter, the Wirecard hunter Fraser Perring offers up to $1 million for information on Jan Marsalek and these two former police officers he had hired. Well, we know them!
Key data
| Brands | XTrader24, CoinFinder, |
| Legal entity | XTrader24 GmbH (Austria), PRM GmbH (Austria), Metamorphoses GmbH (Germany) |
| Related individuals | Christoph Gsottbauer, Markus Sperr, Thomas Sperr, Otto-Philipp Braun |
| Jurisdiction | Austria |
| Related cases | Wirecard |
| Regulatory actions | FMA revoked license on 16 Dec 2021 (link) |
PRM, XTrader24, and Wirecard
We met former police officer Markus Gsottbauer and his colleagues in 2017 when he was tasked with monitoring us. We had several conversations in which he elaborated on his XTrader24 crypto activities in Dubai and bragged about his contacts with important people in the international financial scene. It was relatively quickly apparent that Gsottbauer wanted to sound us out.
Behind XTrader24 are the two former police officers, Christoph Gsottbauer, Markus Sperr, and his brother Thomas Sperr. Markus Sperr is also the beneficial owner and managing director of PRM GmbH.
Christoph Gsottbauer is also one of the top managers of PRM and represents the company in Dubai. In recent months, the PRM has become a politically exposed organization. It was become known because a key witness has testified in parliamentary investigations in Germany and Austria that PRM or Gsottbauer and Sperr spied on and allegedly intimidated critics for Wirecard. One witness even believes that RPM also spied on and intimidated employees of EY, the auditor responsible for Wirecard. See the screenshot of the protocol of the investigative committee of the German Bundestag left (link to file).
PRM is also allegedly involved in the so-called Ibiza Affair, which brought down the then Vice-Chancellor Heinz-Christian Strache. Along with the government at the time. Strache is said to have been a PRM client in this case.
Oh yes, PRM and XTrader24 are at the center of a politically exposed case. Does the question arise in this context for whom XTrader24 laundered money or facilitated money laundering? The company was hardly known. Many questions desperately need answers.
Connecting dots
PRM owners Gsottbauer and the Sperr brothers are also beneficial owners of XTrader24, which is massively involved in money laundering, according to FMA.
The question naturally arises whether XTrader24, founded in 2016, was also involved in Wirecard transactions. It is well known that Wirecard also processed a large part of its transaction volume via partners from Dubai, such as Al Alam Solutions FZ LLC. Dubai is also where Gsottbauer and PRM are based.
The investigations by the public prosecutor’s office in the Ibiza affair ultimately brought down former prime minister Sebastian Kurz because the public prosecutor’s office saw the suspicion of corruption via the chats on the cell phones seized in the Ibiza Affaire proceedings. They plan to file charges against Kurz and his team.
Details about possible connections between XTrader24, PRM, and Wirecard are can only be clarified by investigations of the responsible law enforcement agencies. In any case, the soup is already very thick, and it would be incomprehensible if this is not investigated.
Share information
We would like to know more about PRM, XTrader24, and Wirecard. Please share information anonymously through our whistleblower system, Whistle42.
