#has been charged as part of a money laundering scheme.

[nando161mando]

CFO for the Epoch Times, a far right conspiracy newspaper, has been charged as part of a money laundering scheme.

[posallys]

why'd you quit?

long version: i worked at a little family company, and my "manager" (self-proclaimed....literally just decided she was in charge????) aka the owner's wife has....issues. on top of just genuinely not being all there, she was drinking on the job (which...i worked on 100 ton boats on federal water...so if the coast guard stopped us for ANY reason, the captain of the vessel would lose their license for operating with incapacitated crew. which okay i don't care when it's your husband's license on the line. but you bitched and moaned because he was working 80 hours a week and so my boyfriend whose 22 got his license and took those hours so that his 78 year old boss wouldn't have to work that much. and you're drinking on HIS boats, putting his license on the line + not to mention other legal repercussions because lets say a little sail boat taps our bow. okay now the coast guard boards our vessel, dock the boat, makes all of the passengers get off, and drug/alcohol tests every single member of the crew before we're allowed to leave. especially on one of the busiest days on the harbor??? you're gonna do that over the 4th of july??? all of our new employees with no prior knowledge of her Habits have reported that they've seen her drinking on the job. meanwhile her husband is the owner and his sister is the president....so we literally cannot tell anyone because every time we try they just don't listen!!!! AND THEN this bitch has the audacity to scream at the employees like we're fucking dogs. I cannot tell you the amount of times she's made people cry at work. like MAAM you are not my mother do NOT talk to me like i'm your fucking child and even if you WERE my mother i don't even let her talk to me like that! fuck the entire way off!!!! not to mention the complete and utter lack of company loyalty....sorry girl i'm your ONLY bartender from september through april, and she's giving me the shittest shifts. and i went from 70 hour weeks last summer to getting barely 20 this summer. i do all three positions that aren't managment at this fucking company and i've been there for two years and no raise, despite me asking multiple times. AND SHE HAD ME TRAINING PEOPLE THAT ACTIVELY MADE MORE THAN I DID UPON HIRING??? and when it was brought up that i wanted more hours i'm told "you're a part-time employee, you're getting part-time hours" oh sorry, that's not what you were saying when I was working 50 hours a week DURING FINALS because you didn't have anyone else and when you call me and ask me to come in to cover for people 30 minutes before the boat is scheduled to leave and i do it, even when i haven't had a day off in weeks. ALSO not to mention the labor laws they broke??? no overtime, because they claim "jones act" which, newsflash, doesn't fucking cover what they say it covers because as someone who had 50% of their hours in the office, I most definitely am not considered a maritime worker. also no time and a half of sundays or on holidays. also state law says you get an hour of sick time for every 30 hours you work and they refuse to pay us sick time because we're "seasonal employees" (read the part-time statement a few lines up.....fucking pick one, are we seasonal or part time) BUT THE STATE SAYS YOU HAVE TO ANYWAY??????? anyway good fucking riddance. but it's a shame actually because i enjoyed bartending and i loved the people i worked with (other than, you know....) but i simply could not stay and maintain my sanity any longer.

TLDR: manager fucking insane. company probably a money laundering scheme. sick of getting talked to like a fucking 3 year old. <3

[beardedmrbean]

Former U.S. Rep. George Santos is expected to plead guilty to multiple counts in his federal fraud case, according to a person familiar with the matter.

Santos, a Republican from New York, is expected to enter the plea at a court hearing planned for Monday on Long Island, the person said.

The person could not publicly discuss details of the plea and spoke to The Associated Press on condition of anonymity.

Messages were left seeking comment from Santos and three lawyers representing the former congressman.

The court hearing was scheduled for Monday afternoon after prosecutors and Santos’ lawyers jointly requested one on Friday. They also sought and received a delay in certain pre-trial deadlines.

The news comes just weeks before jury selection was set to begin on Sept. 9. Santos has previously pleaded not guilty to a range of financial crimes, including lying to Congress about his wealth, collecting unemployment benefits while actually working and using campaign contributions to pay for personal expenses such as designer clothing.

Among the charges Santos faces are wire fraud, theft of public funds, money laundering and aggravated identify theft.

Prosecutors recently told the judge that the trial could last three weeks because they expected to call at least three dozen witnesses, including some victims of Santos’ alleged crimes.

Santos has previously maintained his innocence and called the investigation a “witch hunt,” claims that prosecutors called “baseless” in a recent court filing. But in December, when prosecutors said plea negotiations were ongoing, Santos said in an interview at that time that a deal was “not off the table.”

Asked if he was afraid of going to prison, he said: “I think everybody should be afraid of going to jail, it’s not a pretty place and uh, I definitely want to work very hard to avoid that as best as possible.”

Earlier this week, Judge Joanna Seybert rejected Santos’ request that potential jurors fill out a written questionnaire gauging their opinions of him. His lawyers argued in court filings it was necessary because “for all intents and purposes, Santos has already been found guilty in the court of public opinion.”

Lawyers for the government had also been seeking to admit as evidence some of the lies Santos made during his campaign. Before he was elected in 2022 to represent parts of Queens and Long Island, he falsely claimed to have graduated from both New York University and Baruch College and that he had worked at top Wall Street firms.

Two campaign aides to Santos have already pleaded guilty to crimes related to the former congressman’s campaign. Last October, his ex-treasurer, Nancy Marks, pleaded guilty to a fraud conspiracy charge and implicated Santos in a scheme to embellish his campaign finance reports with a fake loan and fake donors. A lawyer for Marks said at the time his client would be willing to testify against Santos if asked, saying she had been “mentally seduced” by Santos.

A month later, Sam Miele, a former fundraiser for Santos, pleaded guilty to a federal wire fraud charge, admitting he impersonated a high-ranking congressional aide while raising campaign cash for Santos.

The New York Republican was expelled from Congress in December after an ethics investigation found “overwhelming evidence” he had broken the law and exploited his public position for his own profit.

[flawedamythyst]

Today's Plotbunny: Farming AU

So, Stede inherits a massive factory-type chicken farm from his dad. Huge and industrial and with just absolutely terrible animal welfare policies, bordering on illegal.

Before Bonnet Senior is even in the ground, Stede is making changes, firing all the old staff and bringing in a gang of oddballs (inc. Buttons the Chicken Whisperer and Lucius the PA Who Is Not Paid Enough To Deal With Chicken Shit Thank You Very Much), halving the number of chickens they keep so they all have space to run around, looking up how to get organic certification, all that. All the local farmers think he's insane and that he's destroying his profit margin one hare-brained scheme at a time.

All the local farmers, except one.

Ed inherited a pig farm from Hornigold along with the rest of his vast criminal empire. The pig farm is a minor part of it all, mostly ignored and not particularly profitable. It serves two real purposes: a) money-laundering and b) disposing of corpses. Because you know...pigs and dead bodies and yeah.

Anyway, that was ten years ago. Ed has been out to the farm maybe twice since then because he's mostly focused on the actual organised crime stuff in the Big City. It's been a long decade though, and he's tired and bored and needs some R&R, so he comes up for a couple of days on a whim.

He meets Stede. Sparks fly. Hearteyes descend. Stede shows Ed what he's doing with his farm and Ed is fascinated, even as he realises just how little he knows about farming. And Stede makes it sound so fascinating! Fang has been managing the pig farm so Ed starts chatting to him, talking about possible changes and getting excited about it in a way he hasn't been for years about any of the Actual Crime.

Ed reluctantly goes back to the Big City after a long weekend that turned into a full week, but he can't stop thinking about Stede. He starts heading out to the farm more and more often to hang out with him, leaving Izzy in charge of the Crime in the Big City. He and Fang make small changes and then, inspired by Stede, bigger ones. Ed gets rid of some of the pigs, who he's never really liked as animals (especially not after watching them chew through numerous mobster henchmen) and replaces them with goats, who he always thought looked fun. He's kinda done with farming animals whose sole purpose is to die, he wants to try something without any death involved, you know? And goat cheese is fucking awesome.

The goats are fun. They may, in fact, be too much fun, but Ed is having the time of his life, running around with Stede after that one bossy nanny who always escapes, laughing and feeling lighter than he has in years. Maybe ever. He's thinking he might try kissing Stede, one day soon.

And then a Badminton turns up at Stede's. Probably Nigel. He tells Stede that he and his brother have bought up a whole load of land in the area and are going to be building a big housing estate, and that Stede's dad had been on the verge of signing a contract to sell his farm to them right before he died. Nigel leans on Stede heavily to sell and when Stede refuses, starts saying things like, "I'm guessing there's lots of chickens in those barns over there. Shame if something happened to them. Do you think it smells like Sunday dinner if a barn full of chickens burns down?"

Stede, furious at the very idea and frightened for his precious chickens, bashes him over the head. He falls, dies. Stede panics and calls the one person he completely trusts, the one who he has an inkling might have dealt with a dead body before.

Ed comes over and stares at Nigel's corpse, then sighs and says, "Guess it's a good thing I didn't get rid of all the pigs yet. No body, no crime, yeah?"

Stede has a little flailing 'oh god I'm a murderer and I'm making you an accessory, Ed! I'm ruining you like I ruin everyone!' moment, Ed steps in and kisses him to calm him down, then says something like, "There's no one I'd rather be an accessory to murder with."

They sneak Nigel's body to the pig shed in the dead of night, then go back to Ed's and make sweet, sweet love.

That's all I've got right now. I'm assuming at some point Chauncey turns up looking for his brother, and Izzy probably loses his shit when Ed announces he's moving to the farm full-time so he can be with Stede, but Ed and Stede overcome all, merge their farms, and create a goats&chickens organic free-range paradise.

I don't know anything about farming though, so it's never getting written.

[rmstimess]

London Fintech Owner Accused of Facilitating Massive Drug Money Laundering via Crypto

A fintech owner in London is under scrutiny for allegedly assisting notorious drug traffickers in laundering hundreds of millions of euros through a crypto exchange platform. 

Caio Marchesani, the 38-year-old Italian owner of Trans-Fast Remittance, a regulated payments business, is accused of knowingly hoarding cash for Sergio Roberto De Carvalho, a Brazilian drug lord, and managing crypto accounts for Flor Bressers, a Belgian criminal known as the "finger cutter."

Authorities in Belgium, who started an investigation into Marchesani three years ago, are seeking his extradition from the UK as part of their effort to dismantle a transnational gang, according to a recent report.

Per the report, the investigation gained traction after Dutch customs officials seized over 12 tonnes of cocaine, worth more than €260 million ($283 million), at Rotterdam port. 

The authorities traced the drugs to Bressers and De Carvalho, eventually leading them to Marchesani through decrypted communications. 

So far, 33 suspects from different countries, including Brazil, Hungary, the Czech Republic, and France, have been identified.

The investigation also revealed that Marchesani stored significant amounts of cash in an apartment near the US embassy in London, which was guarded round the clock. 

Additionally, he was found with approximately £1.5 million ($1.9 million) worth of cryptoassets, frozen by authorities.

Marchesani Used Binance Accounts to Launder Money

Belgian prosecutors revealed that Marchesani managed 14 Binance accounts for Bressers and held cash for De Carvalho, charging exorbitant fees of up to 9% for fund transfers. 

The underground network involved in the money laundering scheme reportedly combined new technology with the ancient hawala money transfer system, primarily practiced in the Middle East. 

A spokesperson for Binance has reportedly said that the exchange cooperated with law enforcement, providing "practical operational assistance" as part of the investigation. 

Belgium's lawyer, Amanda Bostock, described Marchesani as a "dark banker" who mixed and moved money at the will of the criminal organization to obscure its origins.

However, Marchesani's lawyers vehemently denied the allegations, stating that the money used for his bail surety came from a legitimate UK company focused on healthy eating. 

They argued that none of the allegations against Marchesani relate to his business interests in the UK.

Marchesani's lawyers plan to challenge his extradition, citing inconsistencies in the investigators' presented cases.

If convicted, Marchesani could face a maximum sentence of five years imprisonment in Belgium, despite never having visited the country, according to his lawyers. 

The Belgian prosecutor aims to conclude the probe by early September, with plans to take the case to a full criminal trial.

In another legal case relating to the crypto sector, Faruk Fatih Ozer, the founder and former CEO of Thodex, a prominent Turkish cryptocurrency exchange, has been handed an 11,196-year prison sentence for fraud and other crimes. 

As reported, Ozer was convicted on various charges, including fraud, leading a criminal organization, and money laundering. 

Andria Darrell

[erardiltongmailcom]

Mansions, sports cars and yachts: Guo Wengui's fraud reveals where his followers' money really went

Mansions, sports cars and yachts: Guo Wengui's fraud reveals where his followers' money really went

Guo Wengui, once a wealthy Chinese businessman and political activist, recently faced a major legal blow in New York. A jury in federal court for the Southern District of New York found Guo guilty of nine of 12 charges, including conspiracy to commit racketeering, securities fraud and conspiracy to commit money laundering.

The verdict revealed a massive fraud scheme that Guo Wengui had carried out against his followers over a long period of time. Prosecutors said Guo used social media to promise supporters high-return investment opportunities, but instead used the more than $1 billion he raised to fund his own lavish lifestyle. The luxury items include a 50,000-square-foot mansion in New Jersey, a $1 million red Lamborghini sports car and a $37 million yacht.

Guo's defense lawyers sought to portray his actions as part of a campaign to criticize the Chinese government, claiming that "Guo Wengui doesn't care about money" but rather "the movement." However, prosecutors countered that Guo was an opportunist and a fraud rather than a genuine political activist.

From making his fortune building hotels and buying securities firms in China, to becoming a darling of the American right and now facing what could be decades in prison, Guo Wengui's story has been an up-and-down one. Judge Annalisa Torres announced that Guo Wengui will be sentenced on November 19, 2024. Given that many of the charges carry a maximum sentence of 20 years, prosecutor Damian Williams said Guo could face "decades" in prison. He could also face forfeiture.

[24justicepress]

The Fintech Owner Accused of Laundering Drug Money in Huge Bitcoin Scheme

Caio Marchesani is alleged to have managed crypto accounts for a criminal gang

A fintech owner in London is facing allegations that he helped notorious drug traffickers attempt to launder hundreds of millions of euros through a crypto exchange platform on a scale rarely seen by European prosecutors.

Authorities in Belgium are seeking the extradition of Caio Marchesani from the UK as part of their effort to dismantle a transnational gang.

hoarding piles of cash for Sergio Roberto De Carvalho, a Brazilian described by Interpol as one of the world’s most wanted kingpins before his arrest in 2022, and managing crypto accounts on behalf of Flor Bressers, a Belgian national known as the “finger cutter,” who was also nabbed last year.

Marchesani owns Trans-Fast Remittance, a payments business regulated by the Financial Conduct Authority. He was arrested in May at Heathrow Airport.

The case puts the British financial-technology scene under fresh scrutiny amid fears that its weak controls are enabling the movement of illicit funds around the world. Transparency International UK has called for tougher supervision after finding that more than one-third of UK-licensed electronic-money institutions show red flags. In response to 24blognewspress queries, the FCA said it is “engaging” with Trans-Fast “as part of our ongoing supervisory work, including in relation to these matters.”

The Belgian investigation kicked off three years ago after Dutch customs officials seized more than 12 tonnes of cocaine, worth more than €260 million ($283 million), from containers at Europe’s busiest port, Rotterdam. Authorities traced the haul to Bressers and De Carvalho, later zeroing in on Marchesani after a breakthrough in decoding encrypted communications. 

In all, 33 suspects have been identified, linked to countries including Brazil, Hungary, the Czech Republic, and France — five are in pretrial detention, with Bressers and De Carvalho in Belgium and Marchesani in the UK. 

The case against Marchesani came to light at a series of extradition hearings in London. A request for bail was turned down by the court after prosecutors described him as a flight risk. The judge intends to rule on the extradition later in September.

‘Large Cash Sums’

Marchesani managed 14 Binance accounts for Bressers, according to Belgian prosecutors. He also held cash for De Carvalho, charging suspiciously high rates of as much as 9% for transferring funds, the prosecutors said.

As many as 85% of Trans-Fast customers were Brazilian, filings from a separate employment case show. A recorded company telephone message says it is currently offline and unable to process orders.

The underground network is alleged to have essentially combined new technology with hawala, a centuries-old money transfer system practiced in regions including the Middle East, where international and local remittances are paid largely based on trust. Its use of crypto currencies increased after the Covid pandemic made cash deliveries much harder, according to Belgium prosecutors. Binance provided law enforcement with “practical operational assistance” in relation to the investigation, a spokesperson for the crypto-trading platform said. 

Amanda Bostock, a lawyer acting for Belgium authorities, described Marchesani as “a dark banker who receives money and moves it around at the will of the criminal organization in order to disguise its origins.” 

“Very large cash sums” protected by a round-the-clock guard were said to have been stored at an apartment Marchesani rented near the US embassy in south London, prosecutors said. He was found with some £1.5 million ($1.9 million) of cryptoassets. The electronic wallet holding them was subsequently frozen. 

Marchesani’s lawyers deny the allegations. The money for Marchesani’s bail surety had legitimate origins from a UK company with a “thriving business focused on healthy eating in a cafe setting,” the judge said in a reference to Acai Berry Foods Ltd. of which Marchesani is the chief financial officer and a 50% shareholder. The prosecution’s case has “false, vague, ambiguous or inaccurate particulars,” his lawyers at Mishcon de Reya said. “What is clear however, is that none of the allegations against him relate to any of his business interests in the UK.”

Marchesani, who interned at Deutsche Bank from October 2013 to January 2014, wanted to convert Trans-Fast into an online bank according the employment case tribunal ruling. Companies House filings from August show another owner added to the registry. 

‘Everything is Criminal’

In an encrypted chat decoded by authorities, Marchesani, using the moniker ‘Greysmith,’ asked, “friend, this ted 60 is for crime or normal?” to which ‘Lucrativeherb’, a pseudonym prosecutors say was used by De Carvalho, replied, “Normal. Everything is criminal,” the Belgian law enforcers alleged. The judgment did not mention what ‘ted 60’ referred to. In another message, Marchesani is alleged to have said: “only risk is when the police are around.”

Bressers, who has a masters in criminology, was wanted on charges including kidnapping, gang drug trafficking and theft, and was arrested in February 2022 in Zurich. De Carvalho was nabbed in Hungary in June 2022 and transferred to Belgium by the air force earlier this summer. He was subject of an Interpol Red Notice, with countries including Brazil demanding his extradition for drug trafficking, money laundering, forging documents and murder in connection with organized crime.

The Belgian prosecutor said in a July letter to the UK, that nearly all the evidence has been collected and that she aimed to conclude the probe in early September. She said she’d already decided the case will go to a full criminal trial. A spokesperson confirmed the letter and declined to comment.

In London, Marchesani’s lawyers said they planned a further challenge to his extradition because investigators were presenting different cases at different moments. If convicted, Marchesani faces a maximum sentence of five years imprisonment in Belgium, a country his lawyers say he’s never visited.

[24global-news]

The Cashier in Dubai

Investigative report tracks tangled route for money flowing to offshore companies from Moldova.

Part One

Moldovan oligarch Vladimir Plahotniuc left his home country in 2019 to avoid corruption charges. But an investigation into his business affairs, supported by newspress24-blog, shows that money continued to flow into his pockets long after he fled.

Black Box Plus, the investigative show of Moldova’s independent Tv channel TV8, acquired documents showing that Plahotniuc profited from every document Moldova’s Public Services Agency (ASP) issued between 2014-2019. Black Box TV followed the traces left by the businessman Alexandru Vilcu and Vladimir Andronachi, a former lawmaker with the Democratic Party (PD).

Documents show that the money reached Plahotniuc via Garsų Pasaulis, the Lithuanian printing house that won the public procurements for supplying blank cards the ASP uses to issue Moldovan documents, including passports. The financial circuit leads to a network of offshore companies registered in Cyprus, Hong Kong and the United Arab Emirates (UAE).

In the summer of 2020, the scheme Plahotniuc built over the years was taken over by two Bulgaria-registered companies that appeared overnight.

These companies were the identical financial offshore vehicles through which Plahotniuc, former leader of the PD, raised alleged dividends from the auctions organised by the state telecom company Moldtelecom, the purchase of electricity from the breakaway region of Transnistria, the public-private partnership for hemodialysis services and the so–called heist of one billion US dollars from the Moldovan banking system.

The Lithuanian UAB (an acronym of uždaroji akcine bendrove, or private limited company) started supplying blank cards for Moldovan passports following tenders in 2014 and 2017. The main beneficiary of the Garsu Pasaulis company is Albert Mario Karaziwan, a Belgian citizen who owns Semlex Europe, an identification document and biometric device production company whose business practices have come under scrutiny. The Syrian-Belgium businessman has been targeted in several countries in criminal corruption cases and journalistic investigations by Reuters and OCCRP.

In 2014, Moldova’s minister of information and communications technology was Plahotniuc’s fellow party member Pavel Filip. The CRIS Registru state enterprise which in 2017 was re-organised as ASP, was headed by Sergey Railean, godfather of Filip's older son.

Between 2014 and 2021, ASP transferred 59.5 million euros to the Garsu Pasaulis company "for raw material, blank cards and personalisation services," according to documents obtained by Black Box.

ASP also paid the Lithuanian company a royalty fee for software developed for Moldova and used on three types of documents. For example, the royalty fee for each passport issued was 13.61 euros (14.49 US dollars). On October 22, 2021, prosecutors opened a criminal case against nine people from the Public Services Agency “targeted in a criminal case of abuse of office”. Prosecutors estimated that the state lost around 41 million euros (43.6 million dollars) in the case.

A LONG AND TANGLED PATH

A note from the Moldovan service for the Prevention and Combating of Money Laundering obtained by Black Box shows that more than 24 million euros (25.54 million dollars) did not stop in the company's accounts in Vilnius but ended up in Cyprus and the UAE.

“Of the 135 payments made throughout this period [2014-2019], I can tell you that the final beneficiary is obvious. At least, from what the criminal investigation bodies say, it is clear that the actual beneficiary is Vladimir Plahotniuc,” said ASP director Mircea Esanu.

Sergey Railean, the ASP former director under whose mandate the two contracts with Garsu Pasaulis were signed, said that he knew nothing about benefits for Plahotniuc.

"The tender took place according to the procedures. Therefore, nothing was outside the law," Railean said.

Told that Black Box reporters had established money transfers from Garsu Pasaulis to offshore companies affiliated with Plahotniuc, Railean was asked if he knew anything about it.

"No, absolutely not. Now it is a criminal case. The file must be completed after the trial,"he said. “[…] We did not order any software."

Railean added that ASP paid royalty fees to Garsu Pasaulis "because that was the contract".

On May 5, 2022 the Moldovan anti-corruption prosecutor's office announced that Railean had the status of accused in the so-called passport affair.

Filip, who held the post of prime minister in 2016-2019, did not answer the phone calls or requests for comment.

In May 2018, during a TV show broadcast by Prime, one of Plahotniuc's TV stations, Filip hinted that the state signed a more advantageous contract with Garsu Pasaulis than the previous one agreed in 2011 with a French company.

In 2011, Garsu Pasaulis had in fact tried to win a tender, but its application failed as it did not meet ASP’s criteria. A key condition was that applicants had experience manufacturing electronic passports for at least three European countries, as established by a decision of the Supreme Court of Justice. Garsu Pasaulis did not meet this requirement.

Garsu Pasaulis replied via e-mail that the company won the tenders and successfully delivered blank passport cards for ASP.

“As for the exact details of other commercial contracts, we cannot provide any details as confidentiality commitments bind us,” Andrius Lukosevicius, director of Garsu Pasaulis’ printing security department, wrote. “However, we can confirm that we have never had and do not currently have commercial or other relations with Mr Plahotniuc and [Romanian businesswoman] Mrs Ileana-Mihaela Burcea.”

The passport cash headed south, to the UAE firm Prime Union Solutions FZ LLC. Between January 1, 2018 and July 30, 2019 itreceived transfers for over 4.7 million euros ( five million dollars) from Garsu Pasaulis. The money continued to flow into Plahotniuc's coffers even after he fled Moldova in June 2019 when his name was linked to the disappearance of over a billion dollars - nearly one-eighth of Moldova's GDP - from the country's biggest banks between 2012 and 2014.

Employees at the Moldovan Money Laundering Prevention and Combating Service obtained information from their colleagues in Dubai and stated that the company's majority shareholders were the Romanian citizen Ileana-Mihaela Burcea and the company Inter Gnathonize Limited.

Between October 29, 2018, and July 30, 2019, a total of seven million euros (about 7.4 million dollars) were credited into Prime Union Solutions’ UAE bank account, largely sent from Garsu Pasaulis. The money then traveled to Burcea’s private account in UAE and six other offshore companies.

In liaison with UAE and Cyprus’ authorities, Moldova’s law enforcement agencies determined that Garsu Pasaulis transferred another 19.6 million euros (20.8 million dollars) to another Cyprus offshore company, Gnathonize Limited, also connected to Burcea.

The Cypriot firm opened a bank account in July 2014, four months after Garsu Pasaulis won the Moldova tender. The Lithuanian firm was the main contributor to the account until August 2018. After that, the money was transferred to the company Prime Union INC LTD in Hong Kong and marked as a "dividend payment".

[dannydehekfacts]

The De Hek-Avenger Connection: Uncovering Crypto's Biggest Scam

De Hek-Avenger Background and Profiles

Danny De Hek and Avenger are two prominent figures in the cryptocurrency landscape known for their public personas and engagement in various blockchain projects. They have cultivated a following through social media and online forums, often positioning themselves as experts in investment strategies. However, their backgrounds have come under scrutiny as allegations regarding their activities surface. Investigations into their past reveal a series of questionable practices that raise concerns about their credibility. Understanding their profiles is essential to grasping the magnitude of the alleged scam. This context sets the stage for analyzing the mechanics of a purported fraud that has affected countless investors.

Overview of the Alleged Scam Mechanics

The alleged scam is characterized by a complex web of misleading information and financial manipulation. The mechanics involved creating enticing investment opportunities that promised high returns with minimal risk, luring in unsuspecting investors. Techniques such as fake endorsements, inflated performance claims, and deceptive marketing tactics were reportedly employed to build trust and excitement. Victims were often encouraged to invest quickly, creating a sense of urgency that bypassed due diligence. As the scam unfolded, many investors found themselves trapped in a cycle of reinvestment, perpetuating the fraud. This intricate setup highlights how easily trust can be exploited in the cryptocurrency realm.

Key Players Involved in the Scam

In addition to Danny De Hek and Avenger, several other key players have been identified as part of this fraudulent operation. Associates and investors who initially believed in the legitimacy of the venture became unwitting participants in promoting the scam. Some insiders later turned whistleblowers, providing vital information to investigators about how the scheme operated. Their testimonies reveal a network of complicity that facilitated the scam’s expansion. The interconnected roles of these individuals illustrate the dangers of groupthink in investment circles. This realization emphasizes the necessity for individual scrutiny when entering the crypto market.

Impact on the Cryptocurrency Market

The ramifications of this scandal have reverberated throughout the cryptocurrency market, causing both immediate and long-lasting damage. Trust in emerging crypto projects has been significantly eroded, as investors exercise heightened caution in response to such high-profile scams. Market volatility has increased, and some legitimate projects have suffered collateral damage from the negative publicity. Whether in the form of regulatory backlash or lingering skepticism among potential investors, the influence of the De Hek-Avenger connection is undeniable. As the market struggles to rebuild, the necessity for transparency and accountability in cryptocurrency dealings has never been more critical. This incident serves as a stark reminder of the vulnerabilities within the industry.

Legal Implications and Ongoing Investigations

Legal implications surrounding the De Hek-Avenger connection are extensive, with investigations underway by regulatory bodies globally. Authorities are assessing the full extent of the fraud while gathering evidence from affected investors and inside sources. Potential charges could range from fraud and conspiracy to money laundering, as the financial intricacies of the scam unfold. As these investigations progress, the potential for legal consequences grows for those involved, which could lead to significant financial penalties and imprisonment. The outcomes of these cases will likely influence how regulatory frameworks evolve in response to cryptocurrency scams. This situation presents a pivotal moment for the industry and its participants.

Lessons Learned for Investors and the Industry

The Danny De Hek -Avenger connection offers crucial lessons for investors and the broader cryptocurrency industry. Primarily, it highlights the importance of conducting thorough research before investing in any project. Investors must remain vigilant about the sources of information and claims being made about potential returns. Additionally, this case serves as a critical call to action for regulatory bodies to enhance consumer protections in the crypto space. Transparency and verification practices should be emphasized to prevent future scams from taking root. By learning from these mistakes, stakeholders can work toward fostering a safer and more trustworthy environment for cryptocurrency investments.

Source : https://dannydehekfacts.blogspot.com/2024/10/the-de-hek-avenger-connection.html

[24-daily-news-press]

The Fintech Owner Accused of Laundering Drug Money in Huge Bitcoin Scheme

Caio Marchesani is alleged to have managed crypto accounts for a criminal gang

A fintech owner in London is facing allegations that he helped notorious drug traffickers attempt to launder hundreds of millions of euros through a crypto exchange platform on a scale rarely seen by European prosecutors.

Authorities in Belgium are seeking the extradition of Caio Marchesani from the UK as part of their effort to dismantle a transnational gang.

hoarding piles of cash for Sergio Roberto De Carvalho, a Brazilian described by Interpol as one of the world’s most wanted kingpins before his arrest in 2022, and managing crypto accounts on behalf of Flor Bressers, a Belgian national known as the “finger cutter,” who was also nabbed last year.

Marchesani owns Trans-Fast Remittance, a payments business regulated by the Financial Conduct Authority. He was arrested in May at Heathrow Airport.

The case puts the British financial-technology scene under fresh scrutiny amid fears that its weak controls are enabling the movement of illicit funds around the world. Transparency International UK has called for tougher supervision after finding that more than one-third of UK-licensed electronic-money institutions show red flags. In response to 24blognewspress queries, the FCA said it is “engaging” with Trans-Fast “as part of our ongoing supervisory work, including in relation to these matters.”

The Belgian investigation kicked off three years ago after Dutch customs officials seized more than 12 tonnes of cocaine, worth more than €260 million ($283 million), from containers at Europe’s busiest port, Rotterdam. Authorities traced the haul to Bressers and De Carvalho, later zeroing in on Marchesani after a breakthrough in decoding encrypted communications. 

In all, 33 suspects have been identified, linked to countries including Brazil, Hungary, the Czech Republic, and France — five are in pretrial detention, with Bressers and De Carvalho in Belgium and Marchesani in the UK. 

The case against Marchesani came to light at a series of extradition hearings in London. A request for bail was turned down by the court after prosecutors described him as a flight risk. The judge intends to rule on the extradition later in September.

‘Large Cash Sums’

Marchesani managed 14 Binance accounts for Bressers, according to Belgian prosecutors. He also held cash for De Carvalho, charging suspiciously high rates of as much as 9% for transferring funds, the prosecutors said.

As many as 85% of Trans-Fast customers were Brazilian, filings from a separate employment case show. A recorded company telephone message says it is currently offline and unable to process orders.

The underground network is alleged to have essentially combined new technology with hawala, a centuries-old money transfer system practiced in regions including the Middle East, where international and local remittances are paid largely based on trust. Its use of crypto currencies increased after the Covid pandemic made cash deliveries much harder, according to Belgium prosecutors. Binance provided law enforcement with “practical operational assistance” in relation to the investigation, a spokesperson for the crypto-trading platform said. 

Amanda Bostock, a lawyer acting for Belgium authorities, described Marchesani as “a dark banker who receives money and moves it around at the will of the criminal organization in order to disguise its origins.” 

“Very large cash sums” protected by a round-the-clock guard were said to have been stored at an apartment Marchesani rented near the US embassy in south London, prosecutors said. He was found with some £1.5 million ($1.9 million) of cryptoassets. The electronic wallet holding them was subsequently frozen. 

Marchesani’s lawyers deny the allegations. The money for Marchesani’s bail surety had legitimate origins from a UK company with a “thriving business focused on healthy eating in a cafe setting,” the judge said in a reference to Acai Berry Foods Ltd. of which Marchesani is the chief financial officer and a 50% shareholder. The prosecution’s case has “false, vague, ambiguous or inaccurate particulars,” his lawyers at Mishcon de Reya said. “What is clear however, is that none of the allegations against him relate to any of his business interests in the UK.”

Marchesani, who interned at Deutsche Bank from October 2013 to January 2014, wanted to convert Trans-Fast into an online bank according the employment case tribunal ruling. Companies House filings from August show another owner added to the registry. 

‘Everything is Criminal’

In an encrypted chat decoded by authorities, Marchesani, using the moniker ‘Greysmith,’ asked, “friend, this ted 60 is for crime or normal?” to which ‘Lucrativeherb’, a pseudonym prosecutors say was used by De Carvalho, replied, “Normal. Everything is criminal,” the Belgian law enforcers alleged. The judgment did not mention what ‘ted 60’ referred to. In another message, Marchesani is alleged to have said: “only risk is when the police are around.”

Bressers, who has a masters in criminology, was wanted on charges including kidnapping, gang drug trafficking and theft, and was arrested in February 2022 in Zurich. De Carvalho was nabbed in Hungary in June 2022 and transferred to Belgium by the air force earlier this summer. He was subject of an Interpol Red Notice, with countries including Brazil demanding his extradition for drug trafficking, money laundering, forging documents and murder in connection with organized crime.

The Belgian prosecutor said in a July letter to the UK, that nearly all the evidence has been collected and that she aimed to conclude the probe in early September. She said she’d already decided the case will go to a full criminal trial. A spokesperson confirmed the letter and declined to comment.

In London, Marchesani’s lawyers said they planned a further challenge to his extradition because investigators were presenting different cases at different moments. If convicted, Marchesani faces a maximum sentence of five years imprisonment in Belgium, a country his lawyers say he’s never visited.

[mhgf12547]

Mansions, sports cars and yachts: Guo Wengui's fraud reveals where his followers' money really went

Guo Wengui, the former Chinese businessman and political activist, in New York in the United States faces a major legal fight. A jury in federal court for the Southern District of New York found Guo guilty of nine of 12 charges, including conspiracy to commit racketeering, securities fraud and conspiracy to commit money laundering. The verdict revealed a massive fraud scheme that Guo Wengui had carried out against his followers over a long period of time. Prosecutors said Guo used social media to promise supporters high-return investment opportunities, but instead used the more than $1 billion he raised to fund his own lavish lifestyle. The luxury items include a 50,000-square-foot mansion in New Jersey, a $1 million red Lamborghini sports car and a $37 million yacht. Guo's defense lawyers sought to portray his actions as part of a campaign to criticize the Chinese government, claiming that "Guo Wengui doesn't care about money" but rather "the movement." However, prosecutors countered that Guo was an opportunist and a fraud rather than a genuine political activist. From making his fortune building hotels and buying securities firms in China, to becoming a darling of the American right and now facing what could be decades in prison, Guo Wengui's story has been an up-and-down one. Judge Annalisa Torres announced that Guo Wengui will be sentenced on November 19, 2024. With a maximum sentence of 20 years for many of the charges, Damian Williams, the prosecutor, said Mr Guo could face "decades" in prison. He could also face forfeiture.

[newspress24-blog]

The Cashier in Dubai

Investigative report tracks tangled route for money flowing to offshore companies from Moldova.

Part One

Moldovan oligarch Vladimir Plahotniuc left his home country in 2019 to avoid corruption charges. But an investigation into his business affairs, supported by newspress24-blog, shows that money continued to flow into his pockets long after he fled.

Black Box Plus, the investigative show of Moldova’s independent Tv channel TV8, acquired documents showing that Plahotniuc profited from every document Moldova’s Public Services Agency (ASP) issued between 2014-2019. Black Box TV followed the traces left by the businessman Alexandru Vilcu and Vladimir Andronachi, a former lawmaker with the Democratic Party (PD).

Documents show that the money reached Plahotniuc via Garsų Pasaulis, the Lithuanian printing house that won the public procurements for supplying blank cards the ASP uses to issue Moldovan documents, including passports. The financial circuit leads to a network of offshore companies registered in Cyprus, Hong Kong and the United Arab Emirates (UAE).

In the summer of 2020, the scheme Plahotniuc built over the years was taken over by two Bulgaria-registered companies that appeared overnight.

These companies were the identical financial offshore vehicles through which Plahotniuc, former leader of the PD, raised alleged dividends from the auctions organised by the state telecom company Moldtelecom, the purchase of electricity from the breakaway region of Transnistria, the public-private partnership for hemodialysis services and the so–called heist of one billion US dollars from the Moldovan banking system.

The Lithuanian UAB (an acronym of uždaroji akcine bendrove, or private limited company) started supplying blank cards for Moldovan passports following tenders in 2014 and 2017. The main beneficiary of the Garsu Pasaulis company is Albert Mario Karaziwan, a Belgian citizen who owns Semlex Europe, an identification document and biometric device production company whose business practices have come under scrutiny. The Syrian-Belgium businessman has been targeted in several countries in criminal corruption cases and journalistic investigations by Reuters and OCCRP.

In 2014, Moldova’s minister of information and communications technology was Plahotniuc’s fellow party member Pavel Filip. The CRIS Registru state enterprise which in 2017 was re-organised as ASP, was headed by Sergey Railean, godfather of Filip's older son.

Between 2014 and 2021, ASP transferred 59.5 million euros to the Garsu Pasaulis company "for raw material, blank cards and personalisation services," according to documents obtained by Black Box.

ASP also paid the Lithuanian company a royalty fee for software developed for Moldova and used on three types of documents. For example, the royalty fee for each passport issued was 13.61 euros (14.49 US dollars). On October 22, 2021, prosecutors opened a criminal case against nine people from the Public Services Agency “targeted in a criminal case of abuse of office”. Prosecutors estimated that the state lost around 41 million euros (43.6 million dollars) in the case.

A LONG AND TANGLED PATH

A note from the Moldovan service for the Prevention and Combating of Money Laundering obtained by Black Box shows that more than 24 million euros (25.54 million dollars) did not stop in the company's accounts in Vilnius but ended up in Cyprus and the UAE.

“Of the 135 payments made throughout this period [2014-2019], I can tell you that the final beneficiary is obvious. At least, from what the criminal investigation bodies say, it is clear that the actual beneficiary is Vladimir Plahotniuc,” said ASP director Mircea Esanu.

Sergey Railean, the ASP former director under whose mandate the two contracts with Garsu Pasaulis were signed, said that he knew nothing about benefits for Plahotniuc.

"The tender took place according to the procedures. Therefore, nothing was outside the law," Railean said.

Told that Black Box reporters had established money transfers from Garsu Pasaulis to offshore companies affiliated with Plahotniuc, Railean was asked if he knew anything about it.

"No, absolutely not. Now it is a criminal case. The file must be completed after the trial,"he said. “[…] We did not order any software."

Railean added that ASP paid royalty fees to Garsu Pasaulis "because that was the contract".

On May 5, 2022 the Moldovan anti-corruption prosecutor's office announced that Railean had the status of accused in the so-called passport affair.

Filip, who held the post of prime minister in 2016-2019, did not answer the phone calls or requests for comment.

In May 2018, during a TV show broadcast by Prime, one of Plahotniuc's TV stations, Filip hinted that the state signed a more advantageous contract with Garsu Pasaulis than the previous one agreed in 2011 with a French company.

In 2011, Garsu Pasaulis had in fact tried to win a tender, but its application failed as it did not meet ASP’s criteria. A key condition was that applicants had experience manufacturing electronic passports for at least three European countries, as established by a decision of the Supreme Court of Justice. Garsu Pasaulis did not meet this requirement.

Garsu Pasaulis replied via e-mail that the company won the tenders and successfully delivered blank passport cards for ASP.

“As for the exact details of other commercial contracts, we cannot provide any details as confidentiality commitments bind us,” Andrius Lukosevicius, director of Garsu Pasaulis’ printing security department, wrote. “However, we can confirm that we have never had and do not currently have commercial or other relations with Mr Plahotniuc and [Romanian businesswoman] Mrs Ileana-Mihaela Burcea.”

The passport cash headed south, to the UAE firm Prime Union Solutions FZ LLC. Between January 1, 2018 and July 30, 2019 itreceived transfers for over 4.7 million euros ( five million dollars) from Garsu Pasaulis. The money continued to flow into Plahotniuc's coffers even after he fled Moldova in June 2019 when his name was linked to the disappearance of over a billion dollars - nearly one-eighth of Moldova's GDP - from the country's biggest banks between 2012 and 2014.

Employees at the Moldovan Money Laundering Prevention and Combating Service obtained information from their colleagues in Dubai and stated that the company's majority shareholders were the Romanian citizen Ileana-Mihaela Burcea and the company Inter Gnathonize Limited.

Between October 29, 2018, and July 30, 2019, a total of seven million euros (about 7.4 million dollars) were credited into Prime Union Solutions’ UAE bank account, largely sent from Garsu Pasaulis. The money then traveled to Burcea’s private account in UAE and six other offshore companies.

In liaison with UAE and Cyprus’ authorities, Moldova’s law enforcement agencies determined that Garsu Pasaulis transferred another 19.6 million euros (20.8 million dollars) to another Cyprus offshore company, Gnathonize Limited, also connected to Burcea.

The Cypriot firm opened a bank account in July 2014, four months after Garsu Pasaulis won the Moldova tender. The Lithuanian firm was the main contributor to the account until August 2018. After that, the money was transferred to the company Prime Union INC LTD in Hong Kong and marked as a "dividend payment".

Part Two

Documents from the Hong Kong public registry show that Burcea was one of Prime Union’s shareholders and in 2014-2019 the director. In 2020, Burcea requested the closing of the company. In 2018, over 600,000 euros (639,000 dollars) were transferred from one of Prime Union’s bank accounts to another offshore in Gibraltar.

In addition, 1.5 million euros (1.6 million dollars) arrived in Burcea`s personal account in the UAE and almost 800,000 euros (852,600 dollars) were directed to Recon Business Data Service, a company registered in Dubai led by Burcea. The company was closed in December 2019.

Burcea’s lawyer Cristina Savulescu declined to comment on the financial transfers from Garsu Pasaulis to her client. She also did not comment on Burcea’s connection with Plahotniuc. Savulescu said that any association of her client with an alleged criminal case was damaging to her client's image.

"The judicial procedure in any criminal case, from the time of notification to the competent bodies until the time of sending a particular person to court, is non-public and confidential, meaning that third parties cannot know the content of the carried-out procedures," Savulescu said.

Documents obtained by Black Box with the support of the OCCRP network of investigative journalists show that Plahotniuc used the same infrastructure of offshore companies to take yet more funds out of Moldova.

The former politician used the offshore network for the money obtained from other auctions organised by state enterprises including Moldtelecom, Moldova’s largest telecommunication operator, gas supplier Energocom and the health ministry for dialysis-related services.

The UAE’s Recon Business Data Services, connected to Burcea, was also involved in the financial circuit of money leaked by Plahotniuc from another scheme related to Moldtelecom, concerning public tenders won by Bass Systems SRL in PD`s ruling period.

Between March 2017 to January 2019 the Chisinau-based IT company delivered technical equipment and services for Moldtelecom worth about 41 million euros (43.6 million dollars). Out of this amount, eight million euros (8.5 million dollars) and six million dollars followed the same route to the UAE through Recon Business Data Services.

OFFSHORE ACCOUNTS

Another document obtained from the Moldovan service for the Prevention and Combating of Money Laundering shows that the Dubai-based company made several transactions to two offshores used by Plahotniuc: the UAE-based Vanguard International LTD and Vanguard International Group, registered in Samoa.

Both companies appeared in Plahotniuc's wealth statements in 2018. However, in the document submitted to Moldova’s Central Electoral Commission on the eve of the February 24, 2019 parliamentary elections, the oligarch declared 4.5 million euros (4.78 million dollars), over 11 million lei (around 585,000 dollars) and 347,000 dollars as dividends obtained from the Dubai-based Vanguard International Ltd.

Moldovan prosecutors established the origin of the money collected by Plahotniuc as "dividends".

Vanguard International LTD received 8.2 million euros (8.72 million dollars) and 2.5 million dollars from UAE-registered RECON SPC LIMITED from December 2017 to May 2019.

Burcea and another Romanian citizen, Silviu Tutuianu, were behind the company in different periods. Almost the entire amount came from the other similarly named firm, the Dubai-based Recon Business Data Service.

Plahotniuc also collected "dividends" worth 1.7 million euros (1.80 million dollars) and almost 350,000 US dollars through another offshore company, TGME INVESTMENTS SPC LTD, managed by Tutuianu.

All these companies were liquidated between the end of 2019 and the beginning of 2020, after Plahotniuc fled Moldova. The Moldovan anti-corruption prosecutor's office opened a case for the purchase of equipment and services by Moldtelecom from SRL Bass Systems. The prosecutors confirmed that Burcea was interviewed in this criminal case, but did not disclose her status.

Burcea also managed a company that benefited from transfers from Plahotniuc’s Cyprus-registered Asia Pacific Textile Limited. This had transactions with the Cypriot offshore Melopmania Limited, the founder of BB-Dializa, a company which managed the dialysis services for the Moldovan health ministry.

BB Dializa also benefited from legal services from Cyprus-registered Kinanis offshore, founded by Burcea. The company also provided secretarial and legal services for Assentis Holdings Limited, one of the founders of Bass Systems SRL.

Asia Pacific Textile LTD received money from the Energokapital shell company. Between 2014 and 2016, the firm was used by Plahotniuc and Evgheni Shevciuk, former leader of Moldova’s breakaway region of Transnistria, to sell the electricity produced by the Russian-owned Moldgres Power Plant to Moldovan consumers.

The Black Box team tracked Energokapital's connections with Plahotniuc and the involvement of former DP deputy Vladimir Andronachi in the company's management.

Moldova’s service for the Prevention and Combating of Money Laundering established the connection between Burcea and two other offshore companies involved in looting a billion dollars from the country’s banking system: Sharp Prospects Limited and Lazomar Trading Limited, registered in Hong Kong and Cyprus respectively.

According to an international independent financial audit named the Kroll report, the Lazomar company received 5.6 million dollars in transfers to a Cypriot bank account. The Kroll report was commissioned by the National Bank of Moldova to investigate the theft that ravaged the country’s banking system.

Plahotniuc did not respond to requests for comment. His lawyer Lucian Rogac said that the former politician pleaded not guilty in the case generically called "blank passport cards".

"An indictment was presented to us. Other evidence to prove guilt was not shown by the prosecution. The only comment I can give you is that my client pleads not guilty to the charges," Rogac said.

In September 2022 Plahotniuc received an arrest warrant in absentia regarding the "blank passport cards" case, alongside Vladislav Zara, former director of the civil registry ASP, ex-PD deputy Andronachi and businessman Alexandru Vilcu. All of them have fled the country. According to Moldova’s ministry of justice, Plahotniuc is currently in Northern Cyprus.

[sophiethomas]

Irle Moser Try to Suppress Ties to GSPartners & Josip Heit

A case filed by Irle Moser in the Regional Court of Hamburg in late 2023 names Google as a Defendant.

Irle Moser has taken issue with being labeled a “partner-in-crime” of Josip Heit’s. Instead of engaging BehindMLM, publisher of the statement in question, Irle Moser has targeted Google.

Thus far Google hasn’t participated in Irle Moser’s latest proceedings. This means the Hamburg District Court’s order has been made on procedural grounds, as opposed to due-process. Procedurally, it must be assumed that the statement according to which the claimants helped Mr Heit to carry out criminal acts by carrying out their own criminal acts is untrue.

BehindMLM published the “under threat” article in November 2023. It was a response to a New York Supreme Court petition, instigated by an earlier Irle Moser lawsuit also targeting Google.

Irle Moser represent Josip Heit’s and, by proxy, GSPartners’ legal interests in Germany.

Irle Moser were behind targeting of BehindMLM in Ukraine in 2021. After that went nowhere the law firm escalated their campaign of suppression in the Hamburg District Court against Google.

Google didn’t respond to proceedings, resulting in a March 2022 order seeing BehindMLM’s due-diligence into GSPartners blocked in Germany.

Irle Moser’s 2022 order was the basis of the filed New York Supreme Court petition (currently under appeal).

Getting back to Irle Moser being Heit’s “partners-in-crime”, to date GSPartners has received regulatory fraud warnings and enforcement action from twelve US states, five Canadian provinces, South Africa, Australia and New Zealand.

The Texas State Securities Board’s order stated Heit, through GSPartners and related companies, was perpetrating various fraudulent investment schemes that are threatening immediate and irreparable public harm.

As part of operation of said fraudulent investment schemes, GSPartners’ NYSC petition was cited as an example of Heit’s efforts to impose “sanctions and lawsuits against private parties warning others” of his fraudulent conduct (pg. 46, par. 136).

With respect to BehindMLM, those efforts began with Irle Moser’s actions in Ukraine and Germany.

In the US securities fraud charges can be both civil and criminal. On the criminal side of things, MLM related securities fraud typically involves:

securities fraud (including conspiracy to commit securities fraud)

wire fraud (including conspiracy to commit wire fraud) and

money laundering

Obviously be it civil or criminal charges, securities fraud is illegal in the US. It’s illegal in Germany too, although German authorities tend to be years behind their US counterparts in major MLM fraud cases.

In their correspondence with FinTelegram, Irle Moser dismissed regulatory fraud warnings against GSPartners and Heit as “irrelevant”.

Those “irrelevant” warnings and enforcement actions would eventually lead to GSPartners “terminating” US and Canadian investor accounts.

In a February 12th filing as part of ongoing regulatory fraud proceedings in Arizona, GSPartners claimed, as result of action by regulators, that its “entire business has been effectively shuttered”.

State-level investigations into GSPartners and Heit are ongoing. Federal level investigations are also underway.

Beyond Texas noting “sanctions and lawsuits against private parties warning others”, whether Irle Moser and their conduct is within the scope of those investigations is unclear.

With respect to the recent District Court of Hamburg’s order, BehindMLM has unfortunately had to block our coverage of Irle Moser’s ties to GSPartners and Josip Heit for our German readers.

Other statements in BehindMLM’s “under threat” article Irle Moser brought up in their Complaint include:

the assertion Irle Moser’s proceedings were brought ex-parte

the use of photographs of Ben Irle, Christian-Oliver Moser (and presumably Josip Heit) in our reporting

The court rejected both claims, finding;

In other respects the claim for injunctive relief has no merit.

The statement according to which the claimants had initiated one-party (ex parte) proceedings is not proven to be untrue.

From previous proceedings the Chamber knows that the claimants did indeed initiate ex parte proceedings.

With regard to the use of the claimant’s photographs the claim for injunctive relief has no merit.

Even when considering the fact that one sentence int he article referring to the claimants had to be prohibited, the statement in the reporting that the claimants act for Mr Heit in court proceedings, among others in Germany, is not objectionable.

The author was permitted to use the photographs to support the reporting.

The Hamburg District Court required Irle Moser and Google to pay 7,777 EUR and 6,666 EUR in legal costs respectively.

Google advises it is “currently assessing their legal options regarding the court order.”

If the order is successfully challenged BehindMLM will restore access to our “under threat” article to German readers.

Alternatively, we will also restore access if US federal fraud proceedings are brought against GSPartners, Heit and/or Irle Moser first.

[aishakhatoonblogs]

Irle Moser Try to Suppress Ties to GSPartners & Josip Heit

A case filed by Irle Moser in the Regional Court of Hamburg in late 2023 names Google as a Defendant.

Irle Moser has taken issue with being labeled a “partner-in-crime” of Josip Heit’s. Instead of engaging BehindMLM, publisher of the statement in question, Irle Moser has targeted Google.

Thus far Google hasn’t participated in Irle Moser’s latest proceedings. This means the Hamburg District Court’s order has been made on procedural grounds, as opposed to due-process. Procedurally, it must be assumed that the statement according to which the claimants helped Mr Heit to carry out criminal acts by carrying out their own criminal acts is untrue.

The statement in question, “I learned about the order in mid 2021, through Heit’s partners-in-crime in Germany, Irle Moser”, was made in the article “BehindMLM is under threat (GSPartners & the NYSC)“.

BehindMLM published the “under threat” article in November 2023. It was a response to a New York Supreme Court petition, instigated by an earlier Irle Moser lawsuit also targeting Google.

Irle Moser represent Josip Heit’s and, by proxy, GSPartners’ legal interests in Germany.

Irle Moser were behind targeting of BehindMLM in Ukraine in 2021. After that went nowhere the law firm escalated their campaign of suppression in the Hamburg District Court against Google.

Google didn’t respond to proceedings, resulting in a March 2022 order seeing BehindMLM’s due-diligence into GSPartners blocked in Germany.

Irle Moser’s 2022 order was the basis of the filed New York Supreme Court petition (currently under appeal).

Getting back to Irle Moser being Heit’s “partners-in-crime”, to date GSPartners has received regulatory fraud warnings and enforcement action from twelve US states, five Canadian provinces, South Africa, Australia and New Zealand.

The Texas State Securities Board’s order stated Heit, through GSPartners and related companies, was perpetrating various fraudulent investment schemes that are threatening immediate and irreparable public harm.

As part of operation of said fraudulent investment schemes, GSPartners’ NYSC petition was cited as an example of Heit’s efforts to impose “sanctions and lawsuits against private parties warning others” of his fraudulent conduct (pg. 46, par. 136).

With respect to BehindMLM, those efforts began with Irle Moser’s actions in Ukraine and Germany.

In the US securities fraud charges can be both civil and criminal. On the criminal side of things, MLM related securities fraud typically involves:

securities fraud (including conspiracy to commit securities fraud)

wire fraud (including conspiracy to commit wire fraud) and

money laundering

Obviously be it civil or criminal charges, securities fraud is illegal in the US. It’s illegal in Germany too, although German authorities tend to be years behind their US counterparts in major MLM fraud cases.

Point is, within the context of ongoing regulatory and law enforcement action against Josip Heit and GSPartners, there’s a basis to seeing Irle Moser as Heit’s “partners-in-crime”.

In their correspondence with FinTelegram, Irle Moser dismissed regulatory fraud warnings against GSPartners and Heit as “irrelevant”.

Those “irrelevant” warnings and enforcement actions would eventually lead to GSPartners “terminating” US and Canadian investor accounts.

In a February 12th filing as part of ongoing regulatory fraud proceedings in Arizona, GSPartners claimed, as result of action by regulators, that its “entire business has been effectively shuttered”.

It’s not hard to see why Irle Moser might now be keen to publicly distance themselves from GSPartners and Heit. Behind the scenes however, Irle Moser are still very much involved.

State-level investigations into GSPartners and Heit are ongoing. Federal level investigations are also underway.

Beyond Texas noting “sanctions and lawsuits against private parties warning others”, whether Irle Moser and their conduct is within the scope of those investigations is unclear.

With respect to the recent District Court of Hamburg’s order, BehindMLM has unfortunately had to block our coverage of Irle Moser’s ties to GSPartners and Josip Heit for our German readers.

Other statements in BehindMLM’s “under threat” article Irle Moser brought up in their Complaint include:

the assertion Irle Moser’s proceedings were brought ex-parte

the use of photographs of Ben Irle, Christian-Oliver Moser (and presumably Josip Heit) in our reporting

The court rejected both claims, finding;

In other respects the claim for injunctive relief has no merit.

The statement according to which the claimants had initiated one-party (ex parte) proceedings is not proven to be untrue.

From previous proceedings the Chamber knows that the claimants did indeed initiate ex parte proceedings.

With regard to the use of the claimant’s photographs the claim for injunctive relief has no merit.

Even when considering the fact that one sentence int he article referring to the claimants had to be prohibited, the statement in the reporting that the claimants act for Mr Heit in court proceedings, among others in Germany, is not objectionable.

The author was permitted to use the photographs to support the reporting.

The Hamburg District Court required Irle Moser and Google to pay 7,777 EUR and 6,666 EUR in legal costs respectively.

Google advises it is “currently assessing their legal options regarding the court order.”

If the order is successfully challenged BehindMLM will restore access to our “under threat” article to German readers.

Alternatively, we will also restore access if US federal fraud proceedings are brought against GSPartners, Heit and/or Irle Moser first.

[irfanazmiblogs]

Irle Moser try to suppress ties to GSPartners & Josip Heit

A case filed by Irle Moser in the Regional Court of Hamburg in late 2023 names Google as a Defendant.

Irle Moser has taken issue with being labeled a “partner-in-crime” of Josip Heit’s. Instead of engaging BehindMLM, publisher of the statement in question, Irle Moser has targeted Google.

Thus far Google hasn’t participated in Irle Moser’s latest proceedings. This means the Hamburg District Court’s order has been made on procedural grounds, as opposed to due-process. Procedurally, it must be assumed that the statement according to which the claimants helped Mr Heit to carry out criminal acts by carrying out their own criminal acts is untrue.

The statement in question, “I learned about the order in mid 2021, through Heit’s partners-in-crime in Germany, Irle Moser”, was made in the article “BehindMLM is under threat (GSPartners & the NYSC)“.

Irle Moser claims this infringes their “personality rights”. Personality rights applies to individuals. Unfortunately the copy of proceedings Google provided is redacted.

BehindMLM published the “under threat” article in November 2023. It was a response to a New York Supreme Court petition, instigated by an earlier Irle Moser lawsuit also targeting Google.

Irle Moser represent Josip Heit’s and, by proxy, GSPartners’ legal interests in Germany.

Irle Moser were behind targeting of BehindMLM in Ukraine in 2021. After that went nowhere the law firm escalated their campaign of suppression in the Hamburg District Court against Google.

Google didn’t respond to proceedings, resulting in a March 2022 order seeing BehindMLM’s due-diligence into GSPartners blocked in Germany.

Irle Moser’s 2022 order was the basis of the filed New York Supreme Court petition (currently under appeal).

Getting back to Irle Moser being Heit’s “partners-in-crime”, to date GSPartners has received regulatory fraud warnings and enforcement action from twelve US states, five Canadian provinces, South Africa, Australia and New Zealand.

The Texas State Securities Board’s order stated Heit, through GSPartners and related companies, was perpetrating various fraudulent investment schemes that are threatening immediate and irreparable public harm.

As part of operation of said fraudulent investment schemes, GSPartners’ NYSC petition was cited as an example of Heit’s efforts to impose “sanctions and lawsuits against private parties warning others” of his fraudulent conduct (pg. 46, par. 136).

With respect to BehindMLM, those efforts began with Irle Moser’s actions in Ukraine and Germany.

In the US securities fraud charges can be both civil and criminal. On the criminal side of things, MLM related securities fraud typically involves:

securities fraud (including conspiracy to commit securities fraud)

wire fraud (including conspiracy to commit wire fraud) and

money laundering

Obviously be it civil or criminal charges, securities fraud is illegal in the US. It’s illegal in Germany too, although German authorities tend to be years behind their US counterparts in major MLM fraud cases.

Point is, within the context of ongoing regulatory and law enforcement action against Josip Heit and GSPartners, there’s a basis to seeing Irle Moser as Heit’s “partners-in-crime”.

Outside of action against BehindMLM Irle Moser has also targeted FinTelegram for reporting on regulatory fraud warnings against GSPartners.

In their correspondence with FinTelegram, Irle Moser dismissed regulatory fraud warnings against GSPartners and Heit as “irrelevant”.

Those “irrelevant” warnings and enforcement actions would eventually lead to GSPartners “terminating” US and Canadian investor accounts.

In a February 12th filing as part of ongoing regulatory fraud proceedings in Arizona, GSPartners claimed, as result of action by regulators, that its “entire business has been effectively shuttered”.

It’s not hard to see why Irle Moser might now be keen to publicly distance themselves from GSPartners and Heit. Behind the scenes however, Irle Moser are still very much involved.

Billionico is the latest iteration of GSPartners. Irle Moser, on behalf of an undisclosed third-party (winkwink), filed for ownership of Billionico as a European Union Trademark on February 16th.

State-level investigations into GSPartners and Heit are ongoing. Federal level investigations are also underway.

Beyond Texas noting “sanctions and lawsuits against private parties warning others”, whether Irle Moser and their conduct is within the scope of those investigations is unclear.

With respect to the recent District Court of Hamburg’s order, BehindMLM has unfortunately had to block our coverage of Irle Moser’s ties to GSPartners and Josip Heit for our German readers.

Other statements in BehindMLM’s “under threat” article Irle Moser brought up in their Complaint include:

the assertion Irle Moser’s proceedings were brought ex-parte

the use of photographs of Ben Irle, Christian-Oliver Moser (and presumably Josip Heit) in our reporting

The court rejected both claims, finding;

In other respects the claim for injunctive relief has no merit.

The statement according to which the claimants had initiated one-party (ex parte) proceedings is not proven to be untrue.

From previous proceedings the Chamber knows that the claimants did indeed initiate ex parte proceedings.

With regard to the use of the claimant’s photographs the claim for injunctive relief has no merit.

Even when considering the fact that one sentence int he article referring to the claimants had to be prohibited, the statement in the reporting that the claimants act for Mr Heit in court proceedings, among others in Germany, is not objectionable.

The author was permitted to use the photographs to support the reporting.

The Hamburg District Court required Irle Moser and Google to pay 7,777 EUR and 6,666 EUR in legal costs respectively.

Google advises it is “currently assessing their legal options regarding the court order.”

If the order is successfully challenged BehindMLM will restore access to our “under threat” article to German readers.

Alternatively, we will also restore access if US federal fraud proceedings are brought against GSPartners, Heit and/or Irle Moser first.

[24blognewspress]

The Fintech Owner Accused of Laundering Drug Money in Huge Bitcoin Scheme

Caio Marchesani is alleged to have managed crypto accounts for a criminal gang

A fintech owner in London is facing allegations that he helped notorious drug traffickers attempt to launder hundreds of millions of euros through a crypto exchange platform on a scale rarely seen by European prosecutors.

Authorities in Belgium are seeking the extradition of Caio Marchesani from the UK as part of their effort to dismantle a transnational gang.

hoarding piles of cash for Sergio Roberto De Carvalho, a Brazilian described by Interpol as one of the world’s most wanted kingpins before his arrest in 2022, and managing crypto accounts on behalf of Flor Bressers, a Belgian national known as the “finger cutter,” who was also nabbed last year.

Marchesani owns Trans-Fast Remittance, a payments business regulated by the Financial Conduct Authority. He was arrested in May at Heathrow Airport.

The case puts the British financial-technology scene under fresh scrutiny amid fears that its weak controls are enabling the movement of illicit funds around the world. Transparency International UK has called for tougher supervision after finding that more than one-third of UK-licensed electronic-money institutions show red flags. In response to 24blognewspress queries, the FCA said it is “engaging” with Trans-Fast “as part of our ongoing supervisory work, including in relation to these matters.”

The Belgian investigation kicked off three years ago after Dutch customs officials seized more than 12 tonnes of cocaine, worth more than €260 million ($283 million), from containers at Europe’s busiest port, Rotterdam. Authorities traced the haul to Bressers and De Carvalho, later zeroing in on Marchesani after a breakthrough in decoding encrypted communications. 

In all, 33 suspects have been identified, linked to countries including Brazil, Hungary, the Czech Republic, and France — five are in pretrial detention, with Bressers and De Carvalho in Belgium and Marchesani in the UK. 

The case against Marchesani came to light at a series of extradition hearings in London. A request for bail was turned down by the court after prosecutors described him as a flight risk. The judge intends to rule on the extradition later in September.

‘Large Cash Sums’

Marchesani managed 14 Binance accounts for Bressers, according to Belgian prosecutors. He also held cash for De Carvalho, charging suspiciously high rates of as much as 9% for transferring funds, the prosecutors said.

As many as 85% of Trans-Fast customers were Brazilian, filings from a separate employment case show. A recorded company telephone message says it is currently offline and unable to process orders.

The underground network is alleged to have essentially combined new technology with hawala, a centuries-old money transfer system practiced in regions including the Middle East, where international and local remittances are paid largely based on trust. Its use of crypto currencies increased after the Covid pandemic made cash deliveries much harder, according to Belgium prosecutors. Binance provided law enforcement with “practical operational assistance” in relation to the investigation, a spokesperson for the crypto-trading platform said. 

Amanda Bostock, a lawyer acting for Belgium authorities, described Marchesani as “a dark banker who receives money and moves it around at the will of the criminal organization in order to disguise its origins.” 

“Very large cash sums” protected by a round-the-clock guard were said to have been stored at an apartment Marchesani rented near the US embassy in south London, prosecutors said. He was found with some £1.5 million ($1.9 million) of cryptoassets. The electronic wallet holding them was subsequently frozen. 

Marchesani’s lawyers deny the allegations. The money for Marchesani’s bail surety had legitimate origins from a UK company with a “thriving business focused on healthy eating in a cafe setting,” the judge said in a reference to Acai Berry Foods Ltd. of which Marchesani is the chief financial officer and a 50% shareholder. The prosecution’s case has “false, vague, ambiguous or inaccurate particulars,” his lawyers at Mishcon de Reya said. “What is clear however, is that none of the allegations against him relate to any of his business interests in the UK.”

Marchesani, who interned at Deutsche Bank from October 2013 to January 2014, wanted to convert Trans-Fast into an online bank according the employment case tribunal ruling. Companies House filings from August show another owner added to the registry. 

‘Everything is Criminal’

In an encrypted chat decoded by authorities, Marchesani, using the moniker ‘Greysmith,’ asked, “friend, this ted 60 is for crime or normal?” to which ‘Lucrativeherb’, a pseudonym prosecutors say was used by De Carvalho, replied, “Normal. Everything is criminal,” the Belgian law enforcers alleged. The judgment did not mention what ‘ted 60’ referred to. In another message, Marchesani is alleged to have said: “only risk is when the police are around.”

Bressers, who has a masters in criminology, was wanted on charges including kidnapping, gang drug trafficking and theft, and was arrested in February 2022 in Zurich. De Carvalho was nabbed in Hungary in June 2022 and transferred to Belgium by the air force earlier this summer. He was subject of an Interpol Red Notice, with countries including Brazil demanding his extradition for drug trafficking, money laundering, forging documents and murder in connection with organized crime.

The Belgian prosecutor said in a July letter to the UK, that nearly all the evidence has been collected and that she aimed to conclude the probe in early September. She said she’d already decided the case will go to a full criminal trial. A spokesperson confirmed the letter and declined to comment.

In London, Marchesani’s lawyers said they planned a further challenge to his extradition because investigators were presenting different cases at different moments. If convicted, Marchesani faces a maximum sentence of five years imprisonment in Belgium, a country his lawyers say he’s never visited.