About the European Funds Recovery Initiative (EFRI)
The European Funds Recovery Initiative (EFRI) fights cybercrime and identifies financial crime enablers by publicly reporting about them. The EFRI then asks for refunds for victims from scammers and their enablers.
The story around EFRI started in 2017 when we filed a money laundering complaint against Uwe Lenhoff. Uwe Lenhoff, a German scammer who operated a vast criminal organization in cooperation with other big guys of the binary options industry (Gal BARAK, the by now infamous Wolf of Sofia, Ilan Troya (he acted as a whistleblower), Gary Shalon, and Vlad Smirnov). The criminal organization was busted in January 2019. The Austrian and German courts are filing charges against all of the UBOs of this criminal organization. We represent quite a few people on a European level in these trials. However, this criminal organization is not the only one we are addressing. We have realized that the scale of scams is increasing at an unbelievable pace, and everyone can be the target of these scrupulous organizations. We also learned that European law enforcement lacks the corresponding means to address this threat to European civil society.
We strongly believe that a large group of victims fighting scammers, identifying financial crime enablers, and asking the authorities for help in a structured way can make a difference and help stop this kind of fraud in Europe.
If you want to know more about our history and fight, please read these interviews (Part I) and (Part II).
The Austrian not-for-profi organization “Initiatve for fighting cybercriminality in Europe – EFRI (Initiative zur Bekämfpung von Cyberkriminalität an Konsumenten und Kleinanlegern in Europa – EFRI) was set up in Vienna as of 25. mai 2020. EFRI is financed by a standard one-off membership fee of €75 and asks for a 10% success fee in case of recoveries. We also ask for donations (only up to 10% of our financing needs are covered by donations.) We work with litigation funders when we have to go to court.When we have to go to court the success fee has to be increased (for example for the Payvision legal case, the success fee amounts to 15%) as the legal expenses are covered by EFRI.
Pls be aware, joining our legal efforts means that the final decision making for any settlement deals is done by EFRI.
Pls be aware with the membership (granting of power of attorney), the members of our association undertake to pay the agreed commissions directly to EFRI in the event of a successful recovery of funds; non-payment damages the association and other members because the recovery process can no longer be financed as a result. Therefore, members who act in such a way that is detrimental to the association will be expelled from the association. In addition EFRI reserves the right to take all recovery measures and will also publish the names of the members who are detrimental to the association in the interests of the other members.
IMPRESSUM
Initiative zur Bekämpfung von Cyberkriminalität an Konsumenten und Kleinanlegern in Europa
Email Address: [email protected]
Phone No: 00436644251363
Board Members: Elfriede Sixt, Wirtschaftsprüfer und Steuerberater (Austrian Certified Public Accountant), Nigel Kimberley
Members update on November 20, 2024: 1.450
The statutes of the not-for-profit organization are downloadable here.
