Gery Shalon: From Financial Hacker to Transatlantic Crime Boss Gery Shalon, born in Georgia and holding Israeli citizenship, is widely known under several aliases including Gabriel Shalelashvili, Garri Shalelashvili, Gabi, Phillipe Mousset, and Christopher Engeham. He is the son of Georgian businessman and former MP Shota Shalelashvili. According to the U.S. Department of Justice (DoJ press release), Shalon is considered the mastermind behind the largest financial cyberattack in U.S. history, specifically the 2014 JP Morgan hack. In July 2015, Shalon was arrested in Israel and later extradited to the United States, where he currently resides under a form of house…
Author: Tom
Overview of the Allegations Payvision, a payment processing company and former subsidiary of ING Group, has come under scrutiny in connection with its historical business relationships with individuals later accused of operating fraudulent investment schemes. One such individual was German businessman Uwe Lenhoff, who passed away while in custody awaiting formal indictment. Prosecutors in Germany had charged Lenhoff with managing a cybercrime operation, engaging in investment fraud, and participating in money laundering activities. Business Ties and Legal Proceedings Uwe Lenhoff was known to be a close associate of Payvision’s founder and former CEO, Rudolf Booker. According to available case information,…
Tragic Consequence of a Second Scam An elderly German man in his late 70s, who had already lost his entire savings—estimated at €400,000—to the fraudulent schemes orchestrated by Uwe Lenhoff, fell victim once again. In a desperate attempt to recover his funds, he was contacted by a so-called Fund Recovery service. These individuals claimed they could retrieve his stolen money but required a prepayment of several thousand euros. Trusting their promises, the man borrowed money from a friend to cover the upfront cost—only to be scammed again. In the aftermath, overwhelmed by hopelessness and financial ruin, the man took his…
The European Fund Recovery Initiative, a Vienna-based non-profit organization dedicated to assisting fraud victims, has officially filed a money laundering complaint against Deutsche Handelsbank and the PPRO Group. The complaint, backed by substantial documentation, was delivered to both Germany’s financial regulator BaFin and the Public Prosecutor’s Office in Munich. These two institutions are prominently referenced in the case files of the Vienna Cybercrime Trials (#VCT)—one of the most significant cybercrime investigations currently underway in the EU. #VCT: A Landmark Legal Battle Against Cybercrime The Vienna Cybercrime Trials refer to a complex network of legal proceedings involving members of the E&G…
Background: From LottoPalace to Cross-Border Raids Up until spring 2019, the fraudulent LottoPalace website was actively scamming German-speaking victims. Shortly after the arrest of German scam ringleader Uwe Lenhoff, the site disappeared. Lenhoff, who ran call center operations through Silkline Group sh.p.k. in Kosovo, was found dead in his jail cell in July 2020, before formal charges were brought. The cause of his death remains unknown. Lenhoff was not the only figure using Kosovo as a hub for scam operations. In November 2020, law enforcement agencies from both Germany and Kosovo carried out a coordinated raid targeting another call center…
What Are the Vienna Cybercrime Trials? The term Vienna Cybercrime Trials (VCT) is not an official legal designation but rather a label used by Scam-Or Project to describe a series of judicial proceedings involving the E&G Bulgaria cybercrime network. In September 2020, Gal Barak, an Israeli national, was found guilty of leading this criminal enterprise. The Austrian court sentenced him to four years in prison, ordered restitution to victims, and declared the seizure of €2.5 million in illicit gains. Scam-Or Project has reported that this case is just the beginning—additional indictments and legal actions are expected under the VCT umbrella.…
Shooting Incident Targets Key Figure in Fraud Network Reports from media sources in Belgrade, Serbia, confirm a shooting attack early this morning targeting local attorney Marko Vujosevic. Although he survived the assault without physical injury, he is said to be severely shaken. Vujosevic is known as the founder and administrator of Global Payment Solutions Podgorica, a Montenegro-registered entity. This company allegedly operated as an unauthorized payment processor for notorious scammers Uwe Lenhoff and Gal Barak. Barak was sentenced to four years in prison in the high-profile Vienna Cybercrime Trials (VCT). Lenhoff, however, died in custody before the legal proceedings began.…
German Payment Processors Still a Haven for Scammers Unauthorized payment processors based in Germany continue to be widely used by international fraud rings. Entities such as B2G, operated by Rainer Treuer and his associate Oleg Shvartsman from Russia, have helped funnel tens of millions of euros through scam operations involving figures like Gal Barak and Uwe Lenhoff—resulting in major financial losses for thousands of small investors. Among the latest enforcement actions, the German regulator BaFin issued a Cease and Desist Order in October 2020 against Egramming GmbH, a Berlin-registered company accused of facilitating fraudulent schemes, including the crypto scam Capital…
Gal Barak and the E&G Bulgaria Operation In September 2020, Israeli national Gal Barak was sentenced to four years in prison and ordered to pay millions in restitution for investment fraud and money laundering during the Vienna Cybercrime Trials. Barak, who also faces charges in Germany, was the head of the notorious cybercrime group E&G Bulgaria, which operated fraudulent broker sites such as: XtraderFX SafeMarkets Golden Markets OptionStarsGlobal Two critical partners enabled this network: Payvision, which served as the main payment processor PandaTS, a white-label trading software provider that Barak claims functioned similarly to SpotOption, as alleged in the U.S.…
Deceptive Emails and False Promises Another day, another misleading message—this time from Jason Voghel, using the email address [email protected]. In fact, Jason seems to operate from multiple email accounts. Today’s offer? “Big Money” just for activating your account. The provided link redirects to a fraudulent EUROMONEY article, hosted on the Russian domain https://lhfrist.ru. The article is part of a deceptive marketing strategy promoting the Lottery Heroes scheme. Users who attempt to register are ultimately directed to the lottery betting platform Lottery Heroes (www.lotteryheroes.com). Who Operates Lottery Heroes? Though it presents itself as a legitimate lottery betting service, Lottery Heroes is…