The suicide of Canadian 23Traders victim uncovered – Austrian-Israeli perpetrators

The Canadian suicide

The illegal and fraudulent broker scheme 23Traders has not only received many investor warning from financial regulators but is also said to have pushed a Canadian man to commit suicide in December 2016. Fred Turbide of Edmonton, Alberta had lost all of his savings and a substantial amount of borrowed money, totaling more than CAD300,000 (USD 229,060). He lost about two-thirds of this sum on the 23Traders platform, which, according to an investigative report by the Times of Israel, operates from Israel.

Lengthy transcripts of the Skype exchanges between Fred Turbide and “his” boiler room agent with the stage name “Julian Wellington” uncover the unfolding tragedy after 23Traders boiler room agents stole Turbide’s money.

• Dec 6, 2016, Turbide texted, “I am at your mercy right now Julian. Never in my life have I undergone such stress as this before. Oh my God, Julian tell me this is not true.”
• Dec 21, 2016, Wellington called Turbide at 8:47 a.m. Shortly after they got off the phone, Turbide texted, “I am at your mercy right now Julian. Never in my life have I undergone such stress as this before. Oh my God, Julian tell me this is not true.”
• Wellington replied, “Everything will be ok, dear Fred. Faith will lead us to victory. I want to apply the insurance bonus, and recover losses.”
• Turbide texted “I’ve lost my house, my retirement money and my business, damn you. It is now 3:52 PM my time. I am going to take a shower then go to my garage to finish myself off. I am giving you one hour to call me with positive results to put back the money I lost.”
• Dec 21, 2016, Turbide’s wife arrived home later that day to find her husband dead in the garage of a self-inflicted gunshot wound.

Beneficial owners and perpetrators

Let us find the people responsible for this tragedy, many other tragedies and dozens of thousands of desperate victims. In addition to brand owners, these include boiler room operators and payment service providers. These people lead a luxury life with the stolen money and don’t give a damn about the fates of their victims. They have to be held liable.

The 23Traders scheme was operated by Hermes Ventures Ltd registered in St. Vincent and the Grenadines. While the domain www.23traders.com was registered by Hermes Ventures Ltd the 23Traders website was operated by the company`s European subsidiary Decimol Ltd registered in the UK. The Austrian Hans Brabenetz acted as a director in both companies.

The shares of Hermes Ventures Ltd were held by Uranus Limited, a company registered in Jersey. From the documents we have been provided with it`s evident that Uranus Limited and hence the 23Traders scheme or at least the brand was controlled by Hans Brabenetz and his Israeli lawyer Adi Mantel.

According to the findings of The Times of Israel, the Israeli The Founders Group provided $1.85 million in seed funding for 23Traders. In a 2016 Founders Group prospectus, 23Traders’ founder is named as Giora Tal, who is described as having “vast experience in setting up and operating businesses in the gaming industry.” We have not found this Giora Tal in the official documents and hence assume that he is represented by Adi Mantel and/or Hans Brabenetz.

The crypto connection

Brabenetz is also connected with crypto trading activities. He is the owner of the Domain www.cryptomusu.com which is used to operate the crypto trading platform CryptoMusu. The official operator of this platform is Agatha Limited registered in the Commonwealth of Dominica. And is operated by the very same boiler rooms we learned. Only minutes after registration we received the first boiler room calls.

Israeli Boiler Room operator

23Traders scheme operated its boiler room from Israel under the name Markets Giants Ltd. According to Simona Weinglass‘ investigations, Market Giant’s director is Eran Schindler, who is also the founder of “Schindler CFO Financial Services” and the Nuvo Group (see his LinkedIn profile). Market Giants is owned by a company called CFO Outsourcing Services Ltd, which is owned by Eran Schindler together with a third company called I-TLD Management Ltd, owned by Tal Dayagi, also a partner in Schindler CFO Financial Services (see LinkedIn profile)

An astonishing feature of the 23Traders scheme is the fact that the Israeli boiler room operator Market Giants Ltd actually handled the operative processing of the scheme’s payments directly with the payment services provider Payobin. The evidence available to us shows, for example, that Nir Digmi of Market Giants was the contact person for all financial and organizational issues.

In this respect, it looks as if the 23Traders brand owner, the Austrian Hans Brabenetz, and his Israeli lawyer Adi Mantel were only frontmen of the 23Traders scheme. However, the actual management of the scheme lay with the people of Market Giants Ltd. This company still exists today. In a 2017 report by Simona Weinglass on the suicide of the Canadian 23Traders client, the background to Giant Markets can also be found.

Israeli PSP and collusion

The payment transaction service providers involved in BinaryBook also include the well-known Israeli provider Payobin of Eyal Nachum, Tamir Zoltovski and Oded Jeremitsky and their Montenegrin venture Hermes Solution Podgorica DOO.

As mentioned above, payments around the 23Traders platform were made directly between the Israeli boiler room operator Market Giants Ltd and Payobin. This procedure was carried out quite openly. On the Merchant application of 23Traders, you can find the contact details and names of Market Giants Ltd for their daily work.

Once again the question arises how the people behind a registered payment service provider – Moneta International UAB – can support and facilitate illegal broker schemes and their fraud without being held accountable.

Report Information

In case you have additional information on the 23Traders and/or Market Giants Ltd and/or Payobin schemes we would be more than happy to receive them in the very best interest of investor protection. Please use our whistleblower system.