At the end of January 2019, Gal Barak, the owner of several investment scam websites including xtraderfx, optionstars/optionstarsglobal, safemarkets, and Golden Markets, was arrested by law enforcement agencies in Austria and Germany. Barak, an Israeli citizen, was apprehended in Bulgaria at the request of Austrian authorities due to his involvement in a large-scale financial fraud operation that defrauded thousands of small investors across Europe.
In September 2020, Barak was sentenced to four years in prison by an Austrian court for severe commercial fraud and money laundering. The court found that he manipulated trading software and led a cybercrime organization that targeted unsuspecting investors, particularly retirees, resulting in losses exceeding €200 million globally
Despite his conviction, Barak has not yet made any restitution payments to the victims of his schemes.
Since beginning of 2019 EFRI is supporting BARAK victims. More than 360 victims signed on with EFRI for going for refunds from the scammers or their enablers since January 2019.
What companies enabled BARAK to scam tens of thousand consumers?
Gal Barak’s fraudulent schemes involved several payment processors that facilitated the movement of illicit funds through various online trading platforms. The key processors identified in connection with Barak’s operations include:
Payvision BV – This Amsterdam-based payment service provider processed a significant volume of transactions related to Barak’s fraudulent activities, totaling approximately €75.6 million from 2016 to 2019. Payvision enabled the acceptance of credit card payments for multiple scam websites, including XTraderFX, OptionStarsGlobal, SafeMarkets, and Golden Markets. Despite high chargeback rates from defrauded victims, Payvision continued its operations with Barak’s companies, indicating a lack of due diligence regarding the nature of these transactions
Connectum: This London-based payments facilitator was implicated in handling over €7 million in proceeds from Barak’s scams between 2017 and 2019. Connectum acted as an intermediary for transactions linked to Barak’s fraudulent websites, processing payments through accounts held in Germany and Latvia. Although Connectum claimed no direct affiliation with Barak’s schemes, it acknowledged that transactions were facilitated by a third-party processor registered in the UK
Investbank: Many of the shell companies associated with Barak maintained accounts at Investbank in Bulgaria. Reports indicated that large sums of money were transferred rapidly through these accounts, often without proper oversight or compliance with anti-money laundering regulations. This bank reportedly had a lax approach to monitoring suspicious transactions, which allowed Barak and his associates to withdraw substantial amounts of cash without prior requests
These payment processors played crucial roles in enabling the financial infrastructure that supported Barak’s extensive network of fraudulent investment schemes, ultimately defrauding thousands of investors across Europe.
Legal responsibility for fraud!
Through their facilitation of card payments for scammers, PAYVISION and CONNECTUM assumed liability for the fraud and subsequent bankruptcies of the companies they had accepted onto their platforms.
EFRI´s legal actions against Payvision!
During the past years we have undertaken a lot of actions against PAYVISION BV, you can read about all our actions undertaken against them here. It was specially difficult as ING Group NV, the owner of PAYVISION up to today refused to go legally against the ex-CEO of Payvision (Rudolf BOOKER). ING Group NV is covering up the case. NV. Interestingly, the current CEO, Steven van Rijswijk, was responsible for compliance and risk management when ING Group acquired Payvision in early 2018.
Since September 2023 a civil litigation in our case (EFRI/Payvision/ING) is pending in Amsterdam. Settlements on an individual basis were offered during the past months. Summarizing Payvision/ING does not show any remorse but wants to deal with the matter as cheaply as possible.
Due to ongoing discussions with victims, we are aware that many of Gal Barak’s victims are suffering from old-age poverty and severe illness as a result of the fraud and the loss of their life savings
If you would like to join our case to seek a refund, please be aware that we will need to see your deposit slips with the scammers. If you no longer have access to this information, please still come forward; we will do our best to find a way to assist you. (Note: we only ask for a success fee!)