Due to its matted political system and corruption, Slovakia is still considered a political and financial “black hole” in the European Union. Indeed, Slovakia’s capital is still a center of international money laundering and the home of the “Bratislava Approach”: the use of force and criminal means to enforce economic benefits. As it happened in the case of crypto company Bitrush Corp.
Already in 1997, the then U.S. Secretary of State Madeleine Albright awarded Slovakia this unflattering distinction. The magazine Politico repeated this accusation in March 2018 after the murder of journalist Jan KUCIAK.
Last week, the Bratislava investigating authority announced its findings regarding the murder of journalist Jan KUCIAK and his girlfriend Martina KUSNIROVA. According to the latest media reports, the Slovak entrepreneur Marian KOCNERIN is said to have commissioned the murder. The murder of the journalist would have been commissioned for a total of EUR 70,000 because the journalist had investigated the entrepreneur.
Bratislava has long since gained a sad reputation on the international crime scene. Also in the course of our research on the fraud networks behind the Binary Options, Slovak banks and people keep appearing. Bratislava is allegedly also the alleged seat of the Chechen mafia and certainly a center of international money laundering. Slovak banks and entrepreneurs have a very strange understanding of the Anti-Money Laundering (AML) regulations, for example.
BitRush Corp: A Case Study for the “Bratislava Approach”
Around the listed Canadian BitRush Corp, money laundering also plays an important role in a close connection with cryptocurrencies and illegal business activities. The shareholders of BitRush Corp include the Russian banker Ilya KLIGMAN as well as the Slovakian family around the entrepreneur Igor WOLLNER. Together with their Austrian partner Hans-Joerg WAGNER, they have acquired a stake in BitRush Corp via HSRC Investment Pte. Ltd, registered in Singapore. In 2015, BitRush Corp was one of the world’s first listed crypto companies and thus of course very interesting for investors.
At the end of 2016, there was a dispute between the founders of BitRush Corp and the shareholders around the WOLLNER family. The shareholder group led by Igor WOLLNER insisted on doing business with a group of people who were demonstrably involved in illegal activities and money laundering. The core business of these people was to operate various binary options brands and conduct money laundering activities on a global scale in which the son of the former Czechoslovak Prime Minister was also involved. Igor WOLLNER himself is part of the Slovak establishment and was a close friend of the then Slovak Prime Minister.
The founders of BitRush as well as the then CEO refused to participate in these transactions after a thorough investigation and were threatened and brutally removed from the company by the shareholders of HSRC Investment. Expensive lawyers and criminal methods made this possible.
The founders have filed reports of money laundering in London and Vienna and the authorities in 2016 and investigating are still on its way. Threats followed and the expensive Canadian lawyer firm financed by the WOLLNER family opened a legal battle against the founders. People were bribed to provide false affidavits for the court. False statements were also made before the Austrian police, which had to be revoked later. In short: the “Bratislava Method” was consistently implemented.
To this day, the founders, including the CEO of FinTelegram, are threatened and slandered by these people. The traces lead back to Bratislava again and again. The Slovak entrepreneur Igor WOLLNER was never squeamish in his choice of means. A Canadian investor, who had tried to negotiate between the founders of BitRush Corp and Igor WOLLNER, was also able to find out this.
Time as an Ally
History is always written by the winners. Despite a court order in Canada, it’s still not yet decided who wins the BitRush Corp shareholder battle. Authorities will have the last say. Time has proved the founders of BitRush Corp right. The Binary Options are banned in 2018 in the EU, Israel, Canada, and many other countries. Some of the businessmen rejected by the founders at the time are officially suspected of criminal activity and subject to prosecution by the authorities. The Times of Israel has brought comprehensive reports on the fraud industry “Binary Options”.
After the founders retired, BitRush Corp was driven into “RIP mode”. No business activities are set. Rather, they simply try to let the company sleep and thus bury the bad activities set by the people of HSRC Investment & friends. The BitRush Corp can be seen as a sad example for the many criminal activities in the crypto area as well as for the
