The European Funds Recovery Initiative (EFRI) has sent a letter of formal notice to the ING subsidiary Payvision and asked for restitution payments for the victims of scams of the German Uwe Lenhoff, who died in prison while waiting for his indictment. The German prosecutors charged Lenhoff with operating a cybercrime organization, investment fraud, and money laundering. Lenhoff was a close business partner of Payvision and an acquaintance of its founder and then CEO Rudolf Booker.
The EFRI letter alleges that Payvision and its founder and former CEO Rudolf Booker knowingly and willfully facilitated Lenhoff’s scams. It is now also proven from the #ViennaCybercrimeTrials (“#VCT“) that the Israeli Gal Barak – Lenhoff’s former partner – also used Payvision as a payment processor. Barak was sentenced to four years imprisonment and restitution payments in the course of the #VCT in early September 2020.
According to EFRI, Payvision wanted to increase the processed payment volume and the value of the company by deliberately doing business with cybercriminals like Lenhoff. In fact, Rudolf Booker and his co-founders were able to sell Payvision to ING in spring 2018, initially 75% with a valuation of €360 million (see ING press release).
In the meantime, ING is to hold 100% of the shares in Payvision. Booker and its co-founders had to leave the company on April 30, 2020. Rumor has it that the founding team received €90 million for the remaining shares.
Should EFRI succeed in proving that Booker and Payvision knowingly and willingly supported the many scams from Lenhoff, Barak, and their network for their own benefit, this would actually constitute a serious problem for Payvision, Booker, and his team.
