This is finally not another piece of bad news from ING subsidiary Payvision. The Dutch high-risk payment processor is deeply involved in the swamp of broker scams around the Vienna Cybercrime Trials (#VCT). Payvision allegedly wilfully and knowingly facilitated broker fraud and money laundering. The presumption of innocence applies. Anyway, today’s announcement of a partnership with the global hospitality platform Selina (www.selina.com) has to be appreciated. The idea is to provide Selina clients with ultimate payment experiences while traveling. Not an easy business model in the COVID-19 pandemic but hello, positive news though.
According to the court’s written verdict in the Gal Barak conviction and the findings of various EU law enforcement agencies, Payvision, then led by the trio of founders around Rudolph Booker, knowingly and willfully laundered funds for scammers. Investigations are currently underway, and the European Fund Recovery Initiative (EFRI) has made claims from victims in the millions. A respective money laundering has already been filed. ING and Payvision have apparently decided to ignore the past and investigations. Well, “only” a few thousand consumers, including many elderly people, have been defrauded by Payvision clients.
It will probably take a lot of effort and even more good news to get Payvision out of the scam swamp and forget about its involvement in the porn and gambling business as a payment processor. The new CEO, Andre Valkenburg (LinkedIn profile), has his work cut out for him. We wish him the best of luck. We really do. To the victims of Payvision supported scams, we wish that the lost money will be recovered soon.
