Wirecard, GreyMountain, And The Binary Options Fraud Machine (Part II)

In part I of our reports on the Wirecard involvement in the binary options industry we exposed the company’s partnership with Israeli SpotOption, the leading binary options white label platform provider back then. With this part II, we focus on the Irish-registered GreyMountain Management Ltd (GMM).

Between 2012 and 2018 binary options fueled the perhaps largest fraud machine in the Internet’s history. Thousands of illegal binary options brokers have betrayed hundreds of thousands if not millions of retail investors worldwide by an estimated $10 billion per year through their fraudulent websites. That’s the U.S. FBI’s estimate of the damage to retail investors. Meanwhile, most jurisdictions banned binary options but back then it for sure was a growth accelerator for several online payment providers like Wirecard. Some of them just engaged as simple PSP some got more involved. Wirecard evidently belonged to the second group, they heavily supported the binary options business.

• GreyMountain Management, based in Ireland, was one of the main perpetrators of fraud ripping off retail investors with binary options in the early binary options phase between 2014 and 2016;
• Financial market supervisory authorities have repeatedly issued warnings against the GreyMountain Management;
• According to the information available to FinTelegram, GreyMountain Management cooperated closely with Wirecard and they jointly processed payments from various binary options schemes;
• Wirecard UK & Ireland and GreyMountain Management shared the same address for their headquarters;
• Wirecard was involved in the Banc de Binary scheme punished by U.S. CFTC and SEC;
• Wirecard director formed payment services company with GreyMountain Management;

Wirecard and GreyMountain Headquarters in Dublin

Wirecard UK & Ireland Ltd has its registered office in Ulysses House on 1 Foley Street in Dublin, Ireland on the first floor. GreyMountain Management Ltd also sat there – on the 3rd floor. The company was founded in 2014 and went into liquidation after numerous warnings from financial market supervisory authorities and an investigation into the firm’s activities by Irish regulators. The address was also changed with the start of the liquidation proceedings.

Back in the active times of GreyMountain Management (GMM) the directors of Wirecard UK & Ireland were Alan White, Michelle Molloy, and Jan Marsalek.

Binary Options Platform Provider

GMM was not just another operator of illegal and fraudulent binary options sites. It operated many illegal and fraudulent binary options brokers through its white label solution. These white label solutions used the trading software and also the payment services of GreyMountain. In return, GreyMountain received corresponding commissions from the white label operators. In this respect, GreyMountain, like SpotOptions, PandaTS or Tradologic, has developed a vast network of fraudulent binary options providers. Illegal and fraudulent operators allegedly associated with GMM include the following brands:

Against many of these illegal binary options brands financial regulators across different jurisdictional regimes issued warnings and cease and desist orders. They defrauded retail investors in the U.S., Europe, Eastern Europe, and Asia in the tunes of hundreds of million dollars.

Montenegro And Atlas Bank

The story with Wirecard and GMM is already exciting, right? Especially because it’s about the early stages of the binary options industry expanding form Israel and causing dozens of billions of dollars of losses for retail investors worldwide. But the story becomes even more exciting with the Montenegro connection to Atlas Bank.

The protagonists founded Montival DOO Podgorica in Montenegro in 2013 for the purpose of handling cash payments. Montival was a client of the Montenegrin Atlas Bank through which, according to the latest information, half a billion euros were laundered. Clients of Bloombex Options or Bank54 and many other illegal binary options broker sites have deposited and lost their money through this Montival and Atlas Bank.

Investors Sue GreyMountain Management

In the management of GreyMountain Management Ltd were also some Israelis like like the Cartu brothers and a certain Uri Katz. The latter was also involved in the management of the Israeli binary options broker Banc de Binary, which had to be closed after massive punishments by the U.S. regulators.

In 2018 GMM and its directors, the Dublin-based Liam Grainger and Ryan Coates and Israel-based brothers David and Jonathan Cartu have been taken to the Irish High Court by its investors who claim to have been scammed to the tune of €4.1 million. FinanceFeeds reported that the plaintiffs are suing the firm and its directors for deceit, breach of contract, breach of duty, misrepresentation and conspiracy to defraud them. The investors, who come from the US, Canada, Singapore, UAE, and Britain also have accused the company of robbing them blind through rigged software. Purportedly, they were induced by the defendants to open binary accounts with false claims that they would earn significant profits.

According to the information available to FinTelegram, it appears that GreyMountain Management was a kind of joint venture between Wirecard and Israeli binary options artists. This also makes sense as the binary options were practically invented in Tel Aviv. As a matter of fact, the Israeli GMM directors are also sued in Israel for their binary options increment.

According to the Times of Israel, the Israeli lawyers Haggai Carmon and Assif filed a lawsuit for $1.5 million against David Cartu and his Israeli company Tracy P.A.I. as the beneficial owner of the illegal binary options broker Beeoptions.com. David Cartu’s brother, Jonathan Cartu was the owner, according to Israel’s corporate registry. Beeoptions.com is another binary options scheme related to GMM.

MegaCharge – A New Wirecard Vehicle?

Because of the troubles with GMM, the former Wirecard UK & Ireland director Michelle Molloy together with the GMM directors David Cartu and Liam Granger founded the new payment company Mega Optimization Limited in Ireland. Michelle Molloy was appointed a director of the company in January 2017.

The new company was positioned to offer its payment services under the brand name MegaCharge (www.megacharge.com). According to the FinTelegram information available, this MegaCharge was planned as a successor company for GMM, but could not be started as planned due to severe problems. Today MegaCharge positions itself as a “normal” hosting company.