Israeli Gal Barak, sentenced in September 2020 to four years in prison for investment fraud and money laundering, was a ringleader of the cybercrime organization E&G Bulgaria. He was released from jail on probation. He currently runs defamatory websites in which he slanders FinTelegram, EFRI, and his former partner. An EU court has ordered the hoster SmartApe to delete the articles, but the court order has not been served yet. We are therefore looking for the whereabouts of its director Mark Tepterev.
The German prosecutor also wants to charge Gal Barak as a ringleader of his E&G Bulgaria. Barak ran the cybercrime organization together with his partners Gery Shalon and Vladislav Smirnov. He confessed at his trial in Vienna and admitted the fraud; his former lieutenant Jackie Fitelzon has also confessed and further incriminated Barak. The decision on further charges in other EU member states currently is up to the European Court of Justice. Please read the report here.
Gal Barak has massively incriminated his former partner Ilan Tzorya, claiming that the latter was the real head of the cybercrime organization. Tzorya had parted ways with Barak, Shalon, and Smirnov in 2017 because he claims to have noticed that they were defrauding their clients. Tzorya reported this to the Law Enforcement authorities. The law enforcement authorities have charged Tzorya anyway; the court has not yet scheduled a trial.
While on probation, Gal Barak runs websites through the SmartApe hoster on which he massively insults Ilan Tzorya and accuses him of serious criminal offenses. FinTelegram and EFRI are also defamed on these websites. An EU court has issued an injunction to the Estonian-registered hoster SmartApe OÜ and ordered the deletion of the websites. Unfortunately, the managing director, Mark Tepterev (LinkedIn), a Russian with an Israeli passport, cannot be found by the courts. Therefore, it has not been possible to serve the cease-and-desist order so far. Tepterev is pictured left.
SmartApe has its servers in Russia and the Czech Republic; however, the website says that SmartApe OÜ, registered in Estonia, is responsible for the published information.
If you have any information about the whereabouts of Mark Tepterev or an authorized representative of SmartApe OÜ, please let us know through our whistleblower system, Whistle42.
