The death of the suspected cybercrime principal Uwe Lenhoff, who was imprisoned in Germany, remains unexplained and rather mysterious. Lenhoff was found dead in his cell by his cell neighbor on 6 July 2020. He is said to have been lying lifeless next to the bed. The autopsy ordered by the public prosecutor’s office did not find any obvious traces of external influence. Suicide was also ruled out. To this day, however, no reason for death can be found either, as Uwe Ritzer reported today in the Sueddeutsche Zeitung. According to the report, Lenhoff is said to have cheated up to 124,000 German citizens with his scams. Many people will be relieved at Lenhoff’s death.
A convenient death
Lenhoff’s cybercrime organization includes scams like Option888, XMarkets, TradoVest, or LottoPalace. Lenhoff was also heavily involved in money laundering. He has made a lot of enemies in different countries and cultures in his cybercrime career.
Lenhoff’s death comes in handy for some of his former accomplices and co-conspirators. In the end, Lenhoff is said to have cooperated with the authorities and to have given further names. He had previously incriminated former accomplices. Shortly before his arrest, he made an enemy of Serbian businessmen who claim that Lenhoff had stolen €100 million from them. It is not yet clear how the criminal proceedings in Germany will continue.
Together with the Dutch real estate investor Dirk Jan “DJ” Bakker and his German compatriot Falk Preussner, Lenhoff founded the listed Veltyco Group PLC in 2016. This was renamed B90 Holdings PLC after his arrest. Lenhoff remained the company’s main shareholder alongside Bakker through his Cypriot trustee Centaur Fiduciaries (see CySEC registration) and his Cyprus-based ULEN HOLDINGS LTD (see OpenCorporates) until his death. After Lenhoff’s arrest, the Dutch investor Peter Paul Westerterp provided fresh money to keep the struggling B90 Holdings alive (read FinTelegram Report here).
Lenhoff also had some dangerous friends in Bulgaria. There he had his secret holding company Winslet Enterprises EOOD through which he also controlled the money flows to the Veltyco Group (B90 Holdings).
Lenhoff had indicated to the authorities that he and a partner would own 4,400 condominiums in Amsterdam. What will become of it is not known. In general, a large part of Lenhoff’s money is not supposed to be traceable.
Meanwhile, the trial against his former partner, the Israeli Gal Barak, has started in Vienna on July 8, 2020. Barak has founded the payment processor Global Payment Solutions Podgorica DOO (see OpenCorporates) with Lenhoff in Montenegro. This was used to launder millions of stolen customer funds. The documents are available to FinTelegram.
There will probably be a lot more to report about Lenhoff and his network in the coming weeks.
