Nov 23, 2021
Wolf of Sofia’s Alleged Accomplice on Trial for $10 Million Scam
, Bloomberg News
(Bloomberg) -- An Israeli accused of helping to rob nearly $10 million from more than 300 victims of a sprawling cyber-trading scam headed by the so-called Wolf of Sofia went on trial in Germany.
The 45-year-old man, who can be identified only as Tal-Jacki Z.F., helped dupe investors from Germany, Austria and other nations via call centers operating from Eastern European cities, prosecutor Nino Goldbeck told a Munich court on at the start of trial on Tuesday. They were talked into putting money into fake trades, he said.
The perpetrators in such scams delude victims with faked graphics showing profits from trading financial instruments, including crypto currencies, binary options and contracts for difference, said Goldbeck. When someone wanted a payout, they were talked out of it, before eventually being told the money was gone because deals went bad, he said.
“In reality, investors never had a chance of getting their money back, let alone making any profits,” said Goldbeck. The accused was part of the “Wolf of Sofia” operation, named after its head Gal B., who got the nickname for running the scam from the Bulgarian capital.
Tal-Jacki Z.F.’s lawyers told the court their client will comment on the charges later on Tuesday.
The case of part of a broader international investigation into organized cyber-fraud crime out of Eastern European countries. Prosecutors from Bavaria’s specialized unit against cybercrime have joined forces with investigators in Israel, Bulgaria, Georgia and other countries in recent years. In July, they searched another call center in Bulgaria and in October they conducted raids in Israel and Georgia, arresting eight people.
From 2015 to 2019, Tal-Jacki Z.F. was a manager of call centers operating out of Bulgaria, Serbia, Bosnia and Herzegovina and Georgia. They used trading-platforms they called Safemarkets, OptionStarsGlobal, Cryptopoint, XTraderFX and others. At the XTraderFX, investors globally paid in at least $70 million in less than a year, according to the indictment.
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