Update on EFRI funds recovery campaigns and facilitating payment services providers

In recent weeks, the European Funds Recovery Initiative (EFRI) has received legally effective Power of Attorney (POA) from hundreds of client-victims of various broker schemes. Thus EFRI has received the mandate from these mostly desperate investors to claim and recover their monies from the scammers, their co-conspirators and other facilitators. As is well known, fraudulent broker schemes such as Option888, Xmarkets, XTraderFX, SafeMarkets, StoxMarket, Blue Trading, or KayaFX have left dozens of thousands of victims and hundreds of millions in losses. Participating Payment Service Providers (PSP) facilitated these rackets with their services and should be held accountable accordingly. Authorities and attorneys share this view.

Power of attorney and mandate of the victims

Equipped with the victims mandate and their POA, EFRI has contacted more than a dozen illegal PSPs such as B2G, StronIT, Workplace Consulting, Condesk or W2P Solutions, by registered mail, email, social media and message services (WhatsApp, Telegram) and requested full cooperation as well as fund recovery.

In addition, EFRI also contacted registered PSPs such as Payvision, UPayCard, or Fondy and called on them to cooperate to recover funds for the scams’ client-victims.

The formal approach with registered mail also has legal significance because it documents that EFRI is doing its utmost to exhaust all legal possibilities to recover the money of the victims of Option888 and the other rackets and their perpetrators.

It for sure comes as no surprise that registered mail to these PSPs operating illegally (without authorization) have proven to be rather ineffective. In most cases, these companies have already disappeared, deleted or cannot be found by post. In this respect, the responsibility of the relevant financial market supervisory authorities will be questioned by EFRI and its lawyers.

It is really shocking how little awareness of injustice there is among the financial service providers involved. The human and family tragedies of the victims are apparently not cared about. Neither are financial service providers and their employees aware that they participate in money laundering schemes by processing criminally acquired funds. EFRI will work with the media and authorities to raise public awareness on behalf of the victims.

Elfriede Sixt, EFRI initiator

Abundance of evidence

A prosecutor involved in the investigation has told FinTelegram that there is actually an “abundance of evidence” to support the hypothesis of the PSPs’ involvement in the schemes as co-conspirators. The authority would currently be working on the right steps to hold them accountable.

Beneficial owners and perpetrators

On the other hand, contact with the benefical owners behind the illegal PSPs via social media and message services has proven to be much more efficient than formal contact with these bogus companies. Once the beneficial owners of these illegal payment service providers are known, they can be contacted directly and no longer simply disappear.

In close cooperation with victims and with the support of authorities and whistleblowers, EFRI will continue along the path taken and systematically assert the victims’ claims against all parties involved in the broker scams with all legal possibilities.

Report Payment Services Provider

In case you are aware of illegally operating PSPs and/or of regulated PSPs participating in fraudulent schemes and rackets please report them to EFRI. Together we can make an impact.