A group of Belgrade call-centers defrauded people around the world of around 250 million euros through fake financial investments. Behind the network of connected companies and investment platforms, which included the sponsor of the English FK Leeds, the trail leads to an Israeli previously convicted of money laundering, BIRN and Investigate Europe reveal.
The group of Belgrade call-centers, which are under investigation by the Serbian and German prosecutors’ offices, according to estimates, defrauded about 70,000 people by offering fake financial investments, such as forex and cryptocurrency trading.
German police estimate that the total damage could be up to 250 million euros, and the victims are in Germany, Great Britain, Ireland, Switzerland, Austria, as well as in Australia and Canada.
Israeli managers were at the top, Serbian managers managed the daily operations, and were in charge of contacting the victims. The prosecutor’s office seized property in Serbia worth about one million euros from the suspected Israeli manager, Šaj Dorani, including an apartment in Belgrade Waterfront. Dorani left Serbia in January 2023, avoiding arrest.
BIRN and Investigate Europe reveal that Israeli businessman Eliran Oved and his wife Liat Kourtz Oved – through a network of fictitious companies and long-time associates – are connected to the call-centers and fake investment platforms through which people were defrauded.
At first glance, there was nothing unusual about the company Olympus Prime. Located in a modernly designed business building in New Belgrade, the company shared space with the Chinese Cultural Center and a luxury hotel.
“The offices looked completely normal, like any other corporate office – lots of desks, chairs, and computers,” says Boris Majlat, prosecutor for high-tech crime, describing the rainy morning of January 11, 2023, when the police raided the premises of four companies, including Olympus Prime.
Equally surprising for Majlat was the fact that the employees were sitting at computers completely calmly, despite the entry of armed police officers. It turned out that they were trained for such situations. In one of the training videos seized by the police during the raid, Israeli managers explained to the staff how to behave if the police came: “Tell them that you offer exclusively educational materials, nothing more.”
The investigation showed that behind the facade of a legal call-center business lay an organized criminal network that defrauded tens of thousands of people around the world by offering fake financial investments, such as forex and cryptocurrency trading.
In addition to Olympus Prime, the police also raided three other connected call-centers in Belgrade – Man Marketing, NPD Partner, and Asgard doo. The operation was led by Europol, and it was carried out at 22 locations in Serbia, Bulgaria, and Cyprus – at the initiative of Germany, which was also approached by the first victims.
Employees in Belgrade call-centers were distributed in teams that targeted citizens of different countries around the world, addressing them in their languages. Using fake names, fake identities, and pre-prepared sentences, they presented themselves as financial advisors to gain trust and extract money from victims, some of whom were pensioners who were losing their life savings.
Internal chats found in the call-centers suggest that the agents were aware of the scams, with no empathy for their victims – sometimes calling them “idiots.” In one correspondence, after an agent stated that a victim had 40,000 euros to invest, his colleague replied: “Great, grab it!”
BIRN and Investigate Europe reveal that the Olympus Prime call-center relied on a clear hierarchical structure: Israeli managers were at the top, Serbian managers managed daily operations and were in charge of contacting the victims. The prosecutor’s office froze the assets in Serbia of the Israeli suspected of running Olympus Prime, whose value is estimated at one million euros, including an apartment in the Belgrade Waterfront settlement.
According to the German police, who answered our questions via email, about 70,000 people were defrauded, and the total damage is estimated at about 250 million euros.
In Serbia, 21 people have been charged with fraud, the damage is estimated at 3.4 million euros, but the indictment is awaiting court confirmation. A wider investigation is still ongoing – in Serbia and Germany – however, the people behind the entire scheme still evade the authorities.
Now BIRN and Investigate Europe reveal that Israeli businessman Eliran Oved and his wife Liat Kourtz Oved – through a network of fictitious companies and long-time associates – are connected to the call-centers and fake platforms through which people were defrauded.
Journalists spoke with victims from Great Britain, Belgium, Ireland, the Netherlands, and Germany.
When asked about the alleged involvement of the Oved couple in the criminal operation, prosecutor Majlat briefly replies that he cannot provide information about a “current investigation.”
The Oveds and their associates mentioned in this text have not been charged with any criminal offense in connection with the Belgrade call-centers. None of them responded to detailed requests for comment.
The paper trail leads to the Israeli couple
On social networks, the Oveds look like a successful couple who post photos from exotic trips and costume parties. Eliran Oved, who is also the owner of the Israeli football club Bnei Yehuda, recently received recognition from the President of Israel, Isaac Herzog, for his team’s notable social engagement.
However, behind this public image is a lucrative business far from the spotlight of football stadiums and award ceremonies. Eliran Oved has previously had problems with the law – in 2012, he was convicted in Israel and sentenced to a year in prison for money laundering and running an illegal betting site.
Our investigation connected him and his wife, Liat Kourtz Oved, to the Belgrade scam call-centers that are the subject of investigation in Serbia and Germany. Over the past year, the investigative team of BIRN and Investigate Europe analyzed dozens of documents from business registers around the world to uncover the Oveds’ business connections.
BIRN and Investigate Europe reveal that the Olympus Prime call-center, which the police raided in January 2023, was owned by Cypriot citizen and former footballer Nikos Andreou, a close associate of the Oved family who managed several of their companies.
In addition to him, confidential associates of the Israeli family include Bulgarian lawyer Vera Nachkova Andonova and Miloš Radivojević, a Serb with Bulgarian citizenship who is Andonova’s husband. Radivojević is the only one who is officially under investigation by Serbian authorities in connection with the call-centers, as part of a money laundering investigation.
The three of them were directors in five companies controlled by the Oved couple, and they had ownership stakes in at least 14 connected companies.
The investigation also reveals that numerous fraudulent online trading platforms that were recommended to victims from the premises of Olympus Prime and other Belgrade call-centers are connected to the Israeli couple or their long-time business associates.
These platforms even include FXVC – the former sponsor of the Premier League football club Leeds United – as well as PrimeOT, Greenfields Capital, which offered online trading in cryptocurrencies, foreign currencies, and other financial products. All these sites have been marked as high-risk by regulators and have been shut down.
Four Belgrade call-centers connected to the Oveds defrauded victims in Germany, Great Britain, Ireland, Switzerland, Austria, as well as in Australia and Canada. Data on the victims found in the Olympus Prime company, which we obtained through a source close to the investigation, show that some people lost only a few hundred euros, while others lost more than a million euros.
Read the full text on the BIRN website.
MORE TOPICS:
HALID BEŠLIĆ DIED: Legendary folk music singer lost battle against serious illness!
Source: BIRN; Photo: Facebook