A 33-year-old Kosovar was sentenced to an 18-month prison term in a trial in Austria after a seven-month pre-trial detainment. The perfectly German-speaking man was one of the boiler room agents of the Veltyco cybercrime organization around Uwe Lenhoff. He worked with the fake name Sebastian Morelli in a boiler room in Pristina for the binary options scam Option888 and cheated 39 victims out of at least €1.2 million. The man pleaded guilty; however, he is still to be charged in Germany for more prison time.
The Trial
In the indictment, Austrian prosecutor Guenter Goessler said that the defendant lured at least €1.24 million out of 39 Austrian victims through his actions between April 2017 and January 2018. If one adds his victims in Germany and Switzerland, it is even €2.4 million. According to the prosecution, Sebastian Morelli was not one of the bosses but just an accomplice in the Veltyco cybercrime organization of Lenhoff.
The Cybercrime Organization
The indictment alleges that Option888 and the other scams of the Veltyco cybercrime organization such as XMarkets or ZoomTrader systematically defrauded clients using the manipulated broker software. However, the founder of the broker software provider denies all such claims and calls them bullshit.
In total, the Veltyco cybercrime organization purportedly stole more than €200 million from victims worldwide. The main suspect of the Veltyco cybercrime organization, German Uwe Lenhoff, died in pre-trial detention in prison in the summer of 2020. Cause of death unknown.
A trial against three other ringleaders is still to be held in 2022.
The Serbian Connection
A significant part of the stolen money from Option888 and the other scam brands was deposited by the victims into the accounts of Global Payment Solutions Podgorica DOO (GPS), the criminal files show. Lenhoff founded this company with the Israeli cybercriminal Gal Barak and the Serbian lawyer Marko Vujosevic. Millions of victims’ money were laundered through this company.
