The Times of Israel: Raids and arrests in European countries of companies running electronic fraud operations linked to Israel
Police in Germany, Kosovo and Bulgaria raided call centers and arrested suspects in March, over cases related to investment fraud related to Israel, according to The Times of Israel.
The Israeli newspaper pointed out that on March 31, German police forces raided call centers and arrested 18 people on charges of running Internet trading sites that allegedly defrauded thousands of Germans and other citizens.
Those arrested were from Kosovo, Albania and Germany, according to the police statement.
The suspects allegedly ran the sites of FXCMarkets, FXOptexGroup, Swissinv24, CFXPoint, IForex24, CodexFX, HBCMarket, CapitalGFX, Investment Department, Tradingmarkets24 and Brokermasters.
The authorities claim that the sites sold fake financial instruments to investors to plunder millions of euros from them.
At least 4 of these sites operated using the Sirix Webtrader platform designed by the Israeli company Leverate, while Leverate told The Times of Israel that none of the brands whose offices were raided in Kosovo “are currently not receiving services from us”.
Earlier in March, police raided a separate group of call centers in Bulgaria where they arrested 5 suspects linked to the websites Trade Capital, Fibonetix, Nobel Trade, Forbslab and Huludox, which they allegedly operated from 2018 until April 2020.
The The Times of Israel defrauded investors with amounts worth tens of millions of euros.
The newspaper reported that a number of alleged fraudulent websites operated in Bulgaria using an Israeli online trading platform also known as Airsoft Technologies.
Police describe Internet investment companies such as those they raided in Bulgaria and Kosovo as a large-scale disaster affecting thousands of investors in Germany and countless other investors across Europe.
German law enforcement authorities said in a statement that “the basic structure of the crime is the same, as fraudsters tell investors that they trade in a specific financial instrument… In the past, this tool was binary options.
Currently, it is contracts for differences, foreign currencies and cryptocurrencies… but This investment is fake, according to the police.
The newspaper pointed out that at the height of this sector, hundreds of companies employed thousands of Israelis and allegedly defrauded victims around the world with billions of dollars.
The companies defraud the victims by making them believe that they are successfully investing and making money, and encouraging them to deposit more and more money in their accounts, until the company causes them to lose trades or disconnects the investor with all or most of his money.
The Israeli authorities have not prosecuted almost any fraudster in the electronic investment sector.
