If there were a list of the wealthiest cybercrime kingpins, Georgia-born Israeli Gery “Gabi” Shalon would be in the top 3. The 37-year-old Shalon has indeed redefined financial cybercrime and took it to the next level. He started his dark career with illegal online gambling businesses. In 2012, he expanded into online investment fraud, securities manipulation, and cryptocurrencies. The U.S. prosecutors charged him in 2015; he pled guilty in 2017 and was ordered to pay more than $413 million to the U.S. Government for his cybercrime offenses. He allegedly controls assets of about $2 billion.
The cybercrime network
| Principal | Gery Shalon, aka Gery Shalelashvili, aka Gabriel Shalon, aki Gabi Shalon |
| Related individuals | Shota Shalelashvili, Robert Shalelashvili, David Bar-El, Simon Tetroashvili, Andrei Tyurin, Vladislav Smirnov, Gal Barak, Marina Barak, Uwe Lenhoff, Ziv Orenstein, Joshua Samuel Aaron, and counting |
| Fields of operation | Online gambling, binary options, forex & CFD, crypto, securities manipulation, computer hacking, money-laundering |
| Court & Law enforcement activities | United States, Germany, Germany, and counting |
| Status | pled guilty in U.S. suspect in EU crime cases |
| Money judgment | $413 million constituting proceeds of charged offenses (Final Order of Forfeiture) |
The U.S. cybercrime charges & forfeiture
From approximately 2012 to mid-2015, Gery Shalon orchestrated massive computer hacking crimes against U.S. financial sector resulting stealing more than 100 client data; the largest theft in history. Shalon and his accomplices used the stolen customer data to run a huge pump-and-dump scheme with penny stocks.
U.S. prosecutors have charged Gery Shalon and his accomplices with 23 counts. Among them are computer hacking, securities fraud and manipulation, illegal online gambling, identity theft, and money laundering. After his arrest in Israel in 2015, Shalon was extradited to the U.S. in 2016. After a short time in prison, he was released to house arrest. In April 2017, Shalon pleaded guilty to all charges.
The Money Judgment
There is still no date for the Sentencing of Shalon. He is obviously working hard to keep the prison sentence as low as possible. That is why he has also agreed to a Monetary Judgment of more than $413 million.
In November 2021, Gery Shalon consented to the Monetary Judgment in the amount of $413,721,087, representing the amount of proceeds traceable to the cybercrime offenses charged that Shalon personally obtained. The U.S. prosecutors have identified the following assets of Shalon:
| Name / Entity /Other | Institution / Place | Amount /Remarks |
|---|---|---|
| Bitcoins (BTC) | Blockchain address ending with y2Bx | 202.45 BTC (appr. $9.5M) |
| BigTree Solutions Inc. BigTree Solutions LLC DeliverLogic Inc. | Specific properties | BigTree Solutions transferred properties to DeliverLogic |
| Gery Shalelashvili | Cartu Bank (Georgia) TBC Bank (Georgia) | |
| Robert Shalelashvili | TBC Bank (Georgia) | |
| Aliner Ltd | VTB Bank (Georgia) Cartu Bank (Georgia) | |
| Kontur LP | VTB Bank (Georgia) Cartu Bank (Georgia) | |
| Dyna International Holding Ltd | Cartu Bank (Georgia) | |
| Themo Business Ltd | Cartu Bank (Georgia) | |
| Artset Company Corp | Cartu Bank (Georgia) | |
| BET Services N.V. | Cartu Bank (Georgia) | |
| Direct Finance Ltd | Cartu Bank (Georgia) | |
| Option Ground Ltd | Cartu Bank (Georgia) | |
| Milos Menkovic | Cartu Bank (Georgia) | |
| Supertool Investments Limited | Cartu Bank (Georgia) | |
| Realzone Trading Limited | Cartu Bank (Georgia) | |
| Affare Limited | Cartu Bank (Georgia) | |
| Innovative Garden Limited | Cartu Bank (Georgia) Basis Bank (Georgia) | |
| Ideal Seeker Limited | Cartu Bank (Georgia) Basis Bank (Georgia) | |
| Ringo Enterprises Limited | Cartu Bank (Georgia) Bank of Cyprus (Cyprus) | |
| Narrowserve Assets Ltd | Bank of Cyprus (Cyprus) | |
| Jakuss Andris | Bank of Cyprus (Cyprus) | |
| Beewings Limited | Bank of Cyprus (Cyprus) | |
| Sorila Commercial Ltd | Bank of Cyprus (Cyprus) | |
| Valentina Popova | Bank of Cyprus (Cyprus) | |
| Onimara Investments Ltd | Bank of Cyprus (Cyprus) | |
| Warmkal Trading Limited | Hellenic Bank (Cyprus) | |
| Telisium Limited | Hellenic Bank (Cyprus) Bank of Cyprus (Cyprus) | |
| Sunserve Equities Ltd | Hellenic Bank (Cyprus) | |
| Plantena Investments Limited | Hellenic Bank (Cyprus) | |
| Ilforno Management Limited | Hellenic Bank (Cyprus) | |
| Erpefa Trading Limited | Hellenic Bank (Cyprus) | |
| Entersa Limited | Hellenic Bank (Cyprus) | |
| Leramo Consulting Limited | Ipay International SA (Luxembourg) | $459,415.79 seized |
| Terlinura Alliance LP | Schroder & Co Bank AG (Switzerland) | |
| Allvitone Systems LP | Schroder & Co Bank AG (Switzerland) | |
| Nener Finance Corp | Schroder & Co Bank AG (Switzerland) | $74,745,279.29 seized |
| Katar Enterprises Inc. | Pasta Bank (Latvia) | |
| Filipko Konstyantyn | Pasta Bank (Latvia) |
The U.S. government will liquidate the assets and apply the proceeds to the $413 million. However, the U.S. Government is authorized to seek forfeiture of substitute assets of Shalon up to the uncollected amount of the Money Judgment.
Follow the money
A merely cursory analysis of bank accounts seized by U.S. authorities shows that Gery Shalon and his network laundered large portions of their illicit income through banks in Georgia and Cyprus. In addition, Schroder & Co Bank in Switzerland also played an important role. There, U.S. prosecutors seized a whopping $75 million from a Nener Finance Corp account.
He maintained dozens of bogus companies, some of which he set up with stolen identities. Through the bank accounts of these companies, he laundered hundreds of millions of dollars, according to U.S. authorities. Shalon and his co-conspirators operated and their own credit and debit card payment schemes IDPay and Todur. They systematically misidentified and miscoded those transactions, in violation of bank and credit card company rules and regulations, the U.S. prosecutors found.
The $2 billion empire
People close to Gery Shalon claim that this $413M fine would not be a problem for him. U.S. authorities would not have discovered many of Shalon’s assets. Among them are online casinos Shalon set up through his partners Gal Barak, Vladislav Smirnov, and various trustees after his arrest in 2015. He did not stop building his cybercrime empire even during his house arrest in New York. Together with his father Shota Shalelashvili, a former member of the Georgian Parliament, he is said to control assets of around $2 billion.
Cybercrime is a highly profitable, highly scalable, and borderless business. Bank robbers, on the other hand, are a dying breed. Who still wants cash from safes?
