Scam Reporters
Sergeant Major
- Messages
- 650
Earlier this year, in March 2020, the OCCRP facilitated and published, together with numerous investigative journalists, series called The Fraud Factory. The original story comes from Swedish DN (Dagens Nyheter, https://www.dn.se/) and subsequently developed via OCCRP in their articles here
As the fraud factory was fully unmasked, readers are advised to go through articles for all the details, it makes no sense repeating the same info. Bottom line, the mysterious MILTON GROUP operates in Ukraine, Kyiv (real operators and owners Israeli-Georgian Jacob Kesselman, David Todva and others) and other countries - Georgia, Bulgaria, Israel, North Macedonia, Albania, Kosovo and indirectly linked few days ago - Serbia).
This scam group, that requires more details and info to be fully demasked, operated numerous scams, like Vetoro Banc, CryptoMB, CryptoBase etc and was since whistleblower's reports subjected to various law enforcement investigations. It was done quietly and discretely and it seems that they have come to an end.
On December 22nd, 2020, the Ukrainian General Prosecutors Office announced the following police raids and arrests in Ukraine and seizing of substantial cash and assets (1mn eur cash and 50 mn eur assets indicated):
https://www.gp.gov.ua/ua/news?_m=publications&_c=view&_t=rec&id=285863
Translation of a part:
''The criminal activity of an organized group of citizens of Ukraine and other countries, which in the period 2017-2020 implemented a fraudulent scheme of embezzling funds of individuals under the guise of attracting investment through specially created web resources, has been documented. They allegedly allowed to make a profit through the purchase and sale of various assets: bank metals, foreign currency, cryptocurrency, securities and more. To mislead investors, the site's software interface simulated sales transactions and a fictitious increase in return on investment of 100 times or more. When depositors applied for cash withdrawals, they received calls from employees of specially created call centers as representatives of trading platforms and demanded payment of service fees and fees for cash transfer - an additional 15% of the amount received. After payment, the investors' accounts were blocked, and the funds placed on them were appropriated by the organizers of the fraudulent scheme. The inspection found that the funds of investors paid through such sites were actually credited to the accounts of a number of companies controlled by the organizers in the UK, Hungary, the Czech Republic, Estonia and other countries with their subsequent legalization. The estimated monthly turnover of the fraudulent scheme ranged from 8 to 10 million euros. Most of the victims are citizens of Germany, Austria, Switzerland and the United Kingdom. European law enforcement agencies searched homes and call centers in Serbia and Bulgaria, during which 9 people involved in the activities were detained. The Ukrainian investigation has now established that the citizens of Ukraine involved in the organization of the scheme, who actually managed the work of the sites, withdrew funds through controlled economic entities and legalized them on the territory of Ukraine.''
From various sources, it is most likely that the so-called Milton Group was brought down in this police action day. Allegedly, the Europol's previous Action Day in Serbia (April 2020, link) provided further evidence that, combined with March 2020 journalist's reports on Milton, led to the full story and eventually to the arrests. It looks like Milton group is heavily damaged or shall we say crippled. Remaining boiler rooms (e.g. in Tirana, Albania - so-called Morgan Group) however, possibly still work.
New scam websites ''arrested'' are:
- CryptoBase (www.cryptobase.ltd)
- CryptoMB (www.cryptomb.com but also .cc and .io)
- VetoroBanc (vetoro.io)
https://www.forexbrokerz.com/brokers/vetoro-banc-review :
However, one is still up and running: My Capital
(see review:
www.forexpeacearmy.com
):
mycapital.io
One can only wonder how exactly laverage works with CFDs …
There should be more on this subject, hopefully...
As the fraud factory was fully unmasked, readers are advised to go through articles for all the details, it makes no sense repeating the same info. Bottom line, the mysterious MILTON GROUP operates in Ukraine, Kyiv (real operators and owners Israeli-Georgian Jacob Kesselman, David Todva and others) and other countries - Georgia, Bulgaria, Israel, North Macedonia, Albania, Kosovo and indirectly linked few days ago - Serbia).
This scam group, that requires more details and info to be fully demasked, operated numerous scams, like Vetoro Banc, CryptoMB, CryptoBase etc and was since whistleblower's reports subjected to various law enforcement investigations. It was done quietly and discretely and it seems that they have come to an end.
On December 22nd, 2020, the Ukrainian General Prosecutors Office announced the following police raids and arrests in Ukraine and seizing of substantial cash and assets (1mn eur cash and 50 mn eur assets indicated):
https://www.gp.gov.ua/ua/news?_m=publications&_c=view&_t=rec&id=285863
Translation of a part:
''The criminal activity of an organized group of citizens of Ukraine and other countries, which in the period 2017-2020 implemented a fraudulent scheme of embezzling funds of individuals under the guise of attracting investment through specially created web resources, has been documented. They allegedly allowed to make a profit through the purchase and sale of various assets: bank metals, foreign currency, cryptocurrency, securities and more. To mislead investors, the site's software interface simulated sales transactions and a fictitious increase in return on investment of 100 times or more. When depositors applied for cash withdrawals, they received calls from employees of specially created call centers as representatives of trading platforms and demanded payment of service fees and fees for cash transfer - an additional 15% of the amount received. After payment, the investors' accounts were blocked, and the funds placed on them were appropriated by the organizers of the fraudulent scheme. The inspection found that the funds of investors paid through such sites were actually credited to the accounts of a number of companies controlled by the organizers in the UK, Hungary, the Czech Republic, Estonia and other countries with their subsequent legalization. The estimated monthly turnover of the fraudulent scheme ranged from 8 to 10 million euros. Most of the victims are citizens of Germany, Austria, Switzerland and the United Kingdom. European law enforcement agencies searched homes and call centers in Serbia and Bulgaria, during which 9 people involved in the activities were detained. The Ukrainian investigation has now established that the citizens of Ukraine involved in the organization of the scheme, who actually managed the work of the sites, withdrew funds through controlled economic entities and legalized them on the territory of Ukraine.''
From various sources, it is most likely that the so-called Milton Group was brought down in this police action day. Allegedly, the Europol's previous Action Day in Serbia (April 2020, link) provided further evidence that, combined with March 2020 journalist's reports on Milton, led to the full story and eventually to the arrests. It looks like Milton group is heavily damaged or shall we say crippled. Remaining boiler rooms (e.g. in Tirana, Albania - so-called Morgan Group) however, possibly still work.
New scam websites ''arrested'' are:
- CryptoBase (www.cryptobase.ltd)
- CryptoMB (www.cryptomb.com but also .cc and .io)
- VetoroBanc (vetoro.io)
https://www.forexbrokerz.com/brokers/vetoro-banc-review :
However, one is still up and running: My Capital
(see review:
My Capital | Forex Brokers Reviews | Forex Peace Army
Is MyCapital a Good Forex Broker? Read Real Reviews, By Traders, For Traders™ Add Your Rating to the Largest Forex Review Database by Forex Peace Army™ >>
www.forexpeacearmy.com
Mycapital
One can only wonder how exactly laverage works with CFDs …
There should be more on this subject, hopefully...
