Scam Broker Industry Powered By Israeli PandaTS Solutions

The illegal and fraudulent broker schemes have already defrauded dozens of thousands of victims in North America, Europe, and Asia. Retail investors lost billions of dollars with those broker scams. FinTelegram reports regularly about new broker scams and works to uncover the perpetrators with the support of whistleblowers and victims. However, not only the operators of the respective broker scams such as Option888, XTraderFX, GoldenMarkets or StoxMarkets are responsible for this rip-off and investment fraud, but also the payment service providers (PSP) involved and ultimately also the white-label providers such as GreyMountain Management, SpotOption, Tradologic or PandaTS. They provide the means to commit investment fraud.

Broker Scams Powered by PandaTS

Gal Barak and his E&G Bulgaria until recently operated their various broker scams such as XTraderFX, SafeMarkets or GoldenMarkets on the basis of Israeli PandaTS white-label solutions. This is interesting because Gal Barak with his partners Vladislav Smirnov and Gery Shalon have developed Tradologic, their own white label solution in Sofia, Bulgaria. After the international enforcement action and the seizing of the source code and respective documentation, Tradologic is dead. PandaTS, on the other hand, lives and currently has a monopoly in the broker scams segment. Its founder Maor Lahav is sort of a principal of this highly lucrative but illicit market niche.

Not only Gal Barak has used PandaTS. fHere are a few broker scams operated by PandaTS.

As a matter of fact, most of the above-mentioned broker brands have received warnings from financial watchdogs across different jurisdictions in North America and Europe. Nevertheless, the company proudly presents them on their website next to the licensed brokers. Fraud hid in plain sight?

Business Model Based On Fraud

Providing white-label software and services PandaTS receives a fee as a percentage of clients victim deposits and is thus a beneficiary in the investment fraud damaging retail investors all over the world. In this respect, PandaTS has a significant interest in the success of the Scam brokers. Their balance sheets and P&L are reflecting the success of the broker schemes like StoxMarket.

In the course of the indictment in the U. S. in the binary options fraud around the Israeli Yukom Communication, the FBI found evidence that white-label provider and former PandaTS competitor SpotOption was massively integrated into the BinaryBook and BigOption scams. Yukom Communication’s CEO, the Israeli Lee Elbaz, has been arrested in the U.S. on the charges of conspiracy to commit wire fraud, the trial date has been set for July 16, 2019. Back in January 2018, the FBI accompanied by Israeli police officers raided the offices of SpotOption in the Tel Aviv.

Although SpotOption founder and then-CEO Pinchas Peterktzishvilly (aka Pini Peter) purported that the FBI operation was not a raid but a sort of voluntary cooperation it became clear that SpotOption played a crucial role in this criminal case. The same applies to Tradologic where a first forensic analysis by the police revealed the possibilities of manipulation to the detriment of retail investors.

PandaTS And Payment Services

PandaTS is not limited to providing and operating the white label solutions for scam brokers. Via Panda Payment Solutions Ltd (www.pandapsp.com), officially based in Hong Kong, a payment facilitator for the processing of illegal payments, PandaTS also offers a payment solution that can be integrated into PandaTS.

Payment Services Providers (PSP) are legally obliged to implement proper KYC and AML procedures to check clients and their transactions. That said, it is questionable how broker scams can be accepted by PandaPSPs without violating these legal requirements.

PandaTS – Fraud Facilitator And Beneficiary

For the FinTelegram Research Team, there is no question that PandaTS is to be held accountable for scam broker schemes powered by its solutions. Given the many public warnings of financial supervisory authorities in North America, Europe, and Asia, PandaTS must be aware of the situation. Hence, it seems to be beyond doubt that PandaTS and its people knowingly and willfully participate in these broker schemes and thus facilitate investment fraud.

Registered payment service providers and banks should carefully consider whether transactions with PandaTS-operated broker sites are consistent with the Anti-Money Laundering (AML) guidelines. On the other hand, honest brokers should think twice before betting on PandaTS.