Payvision founder and CEO Rudolf Booker was the subject of numerous reports on FinTelegram. At least since 2015, he had navigated his Payvision into the fraudulent binary options scene at the time, working closely with people like the German Uwe Lenhoff and the Israeli Gal Barak. Both are now in prison and awaiting indictment for forming criminal organizations and investment fraud. Lenhoff was even a distribution partner for Payvision and was to attract additional customers (scams). Lenhoff was the one who acquired Gal Barak as a customer for Payvision.
The Binary Options Legacy
Rudolf Booker, as well as his co-founder Cheng Lim Li, were, as board members of Payvision, creative forces as payment processors for the binary options fraud industry. In the criminal files of Lenhoff and Barak, there are minutes of conversations between Lenhoff and Booker that show that they wanted to take joint action against the reporting of FinTelegram. As a result, Lenhoff is said to have ordered the murder of the publisher of FinTelegram. Lenhoff subsequently mentioned to Booker that the problem with FinTelegram would soon be solved.
Until shortly before the arrest of Lenhoff and Barak in early 2019, Payvision transferred millions to the scam operators every single month. At that time, numerous financial market supervisory authorities had already issued warnings against these scams. However, Payvision did not terminate the business relationship.
Now Booker and his co-founders have left Payvision. Booker announced this move on LinkedIn a few hours before. They had already sold their shares to ING Bank. In March 2018, ING announced the acquisition of its 75% stake in Payvision on a valuation basis of €360 million.
Responsibility will not go away with founders
In fact, this will not solve the problems of Payvision. The European Funds Recovery Initiative (EFRI), co-founded by FinTelegram, represents numerous victims who paid and lost their money to the scams via Payvision. EFRI principal Elfriede Sixt believes that Payvision has to be held responsible for these losses because of their negligence with KYC/AML procedures.
The departure of Booker and the founders will not change the responsibility of Payvision. We have already asserted the claims with the company. It is beyond any reasonable doubt from the criminal records that Payvision knowingly and willfully participated in the scams of Lenhoff, Barak and others. We want justice for the victims.
Elfried Sixt, EFRI principal
It remains to be seen how Payvision will deal with its legacy from the dark binary options era after its departure. Under Booker, the company has always denied its responsibility. It would certainly be time to start the new beginning after Booker without these legacy issues and to pay compensation to the victims.
