Stephan Steinkeller- Is He a Fraudster Hiding The Truth? (2024)

Behind MLM claims that MetFi is a Ponzi scheme. Staffan Liback and Stephan Steinkeller, former Onecoin promoters, are promoting it. The latter is being investigated in Italy for financial offenses along with his two brothers. Stephan Steinkeller and the promoters who worked for them are accused by Italian authorities of stealing more than $10 million from Italian investors.

These platforms frequently operate without permission from the appropriate authorities and are therefore illegal in all nations. Ponzi scam promoters frequently utilize social media to recruit new members, and they make use of standard network marketing catchphrases like “be your own boss”, “millionaire lifestyle”, or inspirational statements from notable businesspeople. “DM for info” is written in the Instagram bios of the promoters. 

Looking at their website and on the WhitePaper there is no information on the founders, the team, and the roadmap. However, we read that there is an affiliate program.

“The affiliate program for MetFi is arguably the most powerful, transparent, and fair affiliate scheme ever developed. Regardless of whether they choose to be active or passive participants, anyone can participate and make money. I was able to find the compensation plan in Spanish by searching the internet. Typically, the Ponzi scheme compensation systems are overly imbalanced and unsustainable over the long run. 

The Whitepaper also contains the following rather cryptic sentence at the bottom of page 45: “MetFi is growing rapidly and while all efforts will be made to stop bad actors from gaining an official role some bad actors may slip through the cracks to deceive you and steal your assets so always be suspicious and always proceed with extreme caution.”

This is all very suspicious. Don’t give these fools any money. If someone has already recruited you, report them to the appropriate authorities. Needless to say that after the pump and dump all the top promoters will disappear as usual.

It has been revealed that Aron, Stephan Steinkeller, and Christian Steinkeller are Eliminalia’s clients. Eliminalia is infamous for taking a dishonest method to “erase” their clients’ past.

Through a leak of documents that Forbidden Stories was able to get, the Steinkellers were revealed to be Eliminalia clients.

According to Forbidden Stories, they are

“a group of journalists with the goal of defending, pursuing, and disseminating the work of other writers who are threatened, imprisoned, or killed.”

Diego “Didac” Sanchez, the company’s creator, is a Spaniard. 

Fortunately, neither Stephan Steinkeller nor Eliminalia resorted to incarceration or murder. Instead, they used coercion and intimidation to target media coverage of their illicit exploits.

In the legendary OneCoin Ponzi scheme, which was worth $4 billion, Stephan Steinkeller was the top earner.

The brothers spread the word of the hoax through the “One Dream Team” branding. News of the Steinkellers’ arrest in Italy on OneCoin-related accusations broke in 2021.

Eliminalia received a €38,00 payment from a fictitious company in the same year on Stephan Steinkeller’s behalf.

According to Forbidden Stories, Eliminalia employs the following strategies:

• Posing as representatives of the European Union, violating GDPR legislation, and submitting false DMCA claims (backed by made-up, old publications)
• Forbidden Stories claims Eliminia successfully erased articles from “hundreds of journalists” between 2015 and 2021 based on their examined data.

Eliminalia asserts that its services help clients with the “right to be forgotten” get rid of “unwanted and inaccurate information,” however nearly 50,000 internal company documents that were leaked to Forbidden Stories refute this assertion.

The documents demonstrate how Eliminalia works with con artists, spyware firms, torturers, convicted felons, dishonest politicians, and others in the international underworld to conceal information of public interest.

Some of Eliminalia’s clients have been identified in prior reports, including that by Rest of World, but this leak, which contains private emails, client names, contracts, and other legal documents, provides a more thorough picture of the company’s operations.

Along with aiming for honest media portrayal of his clients,

In addition, Sánchez and his business partner José Mara Hill Prados are the owners of at least 50 businesses worldwide, including a surrogacy operation that is being sued for child trafficking.

The ineffective DMCA laws and the well-intended but idiotic European GDPR laws allow organizations like Eliminalia to operate as they do.

Eliminalia and other businesses discovered that data protection regulations may be used as a weapon to delete content from the internet. The Digital Millennium Copyright Act (DMCA) and GDPR were two rules that may be readily broken.

OCCRP contacted the Steinkellers for comment as part of its coverage of the stolen Eliminalia documents. They said no.

Eliminalia was contacted by Forbidden Stories for a response. They also said no.

When Eliminalia discovered that their actions would soon be covered, it hastily changed its name to Idata Protection.

The rebrand has been confirmed by company documents examined by Forbidden Stories, presumably as a result of press-generating inquiries by journalists and researchers.

However, when two consortium members arrived at the office, a staff member informed them that “the company is called Idata Protection, but we belong to Eliminalia.”

The employee said that Sánchez, the company’s creator, was no longer in Barcelona.

If you’re wondering whether BehindMLM was the target of the Steinkellers and Eliminalia, I definitely remember receiving some GDPR-related rubbish from them.

Scammers still use the trick sometimes in Europe, despite the fact that they’ve essentially dried up. If what I’m recalling was sent by Eliminalia, it would have been standard enough for me to just respond to and delete as I only keep correspondence sent by lawyers.

One July 2021 notice was found stored on Lumen Database, I noticed. I think this is definitely the work of Eliminalia, sent from “Global News” and filed as a fake DMCA notice against BehindMLM’s original reporting on the Steinkellers leaving OneCoin.

For reference, BehindMLM indiscriminately refuses to comply with any fictitious GDPR requests.

Some of the views people have on Stephan Steinkeller are:

Stephan Steinkeller- Eliminalia: A Reputation Laundromat for Criminals

‘Blackhat practices’ used by a reputation management firm in Spain aid bad actors everywhere in erasing their past.

Key Findings

• Eliminalia, a reputation manager from Spain, works in the expanding disinformation-for-hire sector, which aids corrupt officials and criminals in concealing their shady pasts.
• More than 1,400 clients, including hundreds suspected or found guilty of anything from drug trafficking to fraud, have utilized the organization to “clean up” their reputations.
• Eliminalia employs a variety of shady strategies, such as harassing journalists and spreading false information, to quash criticism of its customers.
• The corporation abused the “right to be forgotten” legislation intended to shield consumers from harmful content online by using fabricated copyright infringement warnings.

Businessman Didac Sanchez, also known as Ddac Sanchez, is from Spain and the founder of Eliminalia, a company that provides services for controlling online reputation and protecting digital privacy. He was accused by the media of using dishonest techniques to delete harmful and undesirable content from the internet.

Stephan Steinkeller- Didac Sanchez’s profile

Didac Sanchez states that he was born in 1992 in Barcelona’s Raval neighborhood in Spain. He and his sisters were brought up in a juvenile facility run by the Catalan government.

Didac Sanchez founded the reputation management company Eliminalia in 2011. Prior to that, he started the data protection expert Legisdalia. In 2014, Didac Sanchez ran for president of the Barcelona Chamber of Commerce.

Didac Sanchez cracked the last unreadable World War II correspondence with geographic coordinates in 2015. In 2016, he published software that made it possible to encrypt calls, texts, documents, and conversations on Telegram, WhatsApp, Messenger, SMS, and other messaging apps. 

Stephan Steinkeller- Didac Sanchez Critisicm

Didac Sanchez worked for more than 1,500 people between 2015 and 2021 to delete personal data from the internet and publications, according to the hacked files that were released and examined by European journalists.

Stephan Steinkeller- The Eliminalia Leak: What Is It?

A reputation management company’s leak of nearly 50,000 documents was shared with dozens of media partners as well as the French organization Forbidden Stories. As part of the Story Killers project, more than 100 reporters collaborated to explore the disinformation-for-hire business.

The information includes information about Eliminalia’s customers in 50 different nations, such as their names, the contracts they signed, and other legal documents.

This is the first opportunity for journalists to have a close-up look at one of the most significant “black hat” reputation management firms in the world.

Stephan Steinkeller- Eliminalia uses black hat methods to help criminals all across the world erase their past.

Two of them are well-known drug dealers. One is charged with utilizing methods of money laundering to fund a prostitution ring. Another delivered American equipment to the Syrian government. In connection with their involvement in the cryptocurrency fraud that cost investors billions of dollars, three more people have been accused.

These are just a fraction of the more than 1,400 clients who have utilized Eliminalia, a reputation management company that advertises its ability to “erase your past,” many of whom have been convicted of or are under investigation for crimes.

A Barcelona-based company called Eliminalia has spent the last ten years repairing its reputation. From a wood-paneled coworking space it shares with 20 other tenants in the renowned Portal de l’Ngel retail district, the company has expanded to become a significant player in the worldwide disinformation-for-hire sector.

The official mind behind Eliminalia is Didac Sanchez, a 30-year-old Spanish businessman who is rumored to reside in Georgia. Didac Sanchez claims control over a huge network of companies, one of which is a surrogacy agency in Ukraine that is being looked into for baby trafficking.

But it appears that he founded this network with Jose Maria Hill Prados, who was convicted of sexually abusing him as a child. 

Hill Prados’ name isn’t listed in Eliminalia’s documents, but Spanish detectives think he might also be in charge of reputation management.

Thanks to the thousands of leaked documents that were acquired by the French non-profit Forbidden Stories and shared with multiple partners, reporters were able to depict Eliminalia’s extensive network of digital influence. Building on earlier investigations, the data reveal hitherto undiscovered insight into the vast array of deceitful tactics the firm uses to dissipate criticism of its clients.

The records show how Eliminalia, which changed its name to iData Protection S.L. in late December, intimidated journalists with copyright and privacy laws, conned search engines into hiding information, and created fake news. Even new commercial ventures have been started by the company with its criminal customers

Experts claim that Eliminalia is part of a growing disinformation industry that helps bad actors, like criminals and kleptocrats, hide their murky pasts.

Tena Prelec, an Oxford University research scholar who specializes in a global kleptocracy, said: “This whole mechanism, this commission of money and reputation laundering, this everyday kleptocracy, depends today on transnational professional intermediaries.”

Public relations specialists, lobbyists, and lawyers are just a few of the professional service sectors that assist in rebranding dubious individuals, corporations, and countries as well-respected global business leaders and generous cosmopolitans.

Inquiries for this project are not being answered by Eliminalia’s legal counsel since, according to them, many of them involve client business secrets. They accused journalists of being biased.

“The vast majority of the questions’ orientation and content shows a partial and dishonorable approach,” they said.

Stephan Steinkeller- Erasing the past

Eliminalia has used legal loopholes to coerce anyone who criticizes its clients, as seen by the notifications filed against Página66. Reporters discovered that the company’s business strategy revolves around weaponizing copyright and privacy laws from the United States and the European Union.

The signature of “Raul Soto,” an apparent pseudonym used by an Eliminalia employee acting as an employee of the European Commission in Brussels, appeared on many of the emails the company sent citing privacy infractions. Qurium, a nonprofit that specializes in digital forensics, discovered the emails were sent from an IP address in Ukraine, where Eliminalia operated until the Russian invasion last year, after studying the source code of one of the emails.

Stephan Steinkeller- The Dangers of False Information

While its staff was communicating with the media while posing as EU officials, Eliminalia was making remarks to the European Commission about the dangers of false information.

Someone using the name Guillem Castro Izquierdo submitted a public submission in response to a call for opinions on disinformation, which the commission later posted online. Against the spread of “intentional misinformation to influence the judgment of citizens towards international bodies,” other citizens, and corporations, he issued a warning message.

He went on to say that the primary contributing factor is the deceptive use of mass communication channels including social networks, television, radio, digital media, etc. He advised “filtering” news sources and removing content.

Stephan Steinkeller- Data Leak Reveals How Officials, Officials, and Sanctioned Politicians Pumped Money Into Dubai Real Estate in Dubai Uncovered

Dubai, a Middle Eastern financial powerhouse and playground for the world’s wealthy, is recognized for its spectacular skyscrapers, opulent lifestyles, and sunny beaches.

The glitzy emirate, however, also has a less glamorous reputation as a tax haven, a top location for illicit funds, and a favorite location for money laundering, frequently through real estate.

Now, a fresh data breach involving Dubai real estate has revealed the extent to which foreigners have invested heavily in flats and villas there.

The Center for Advanced Defense Studies (C4ADS), a non-profit organization based in Washington, D.C., which does research on global crime and conflict, received the data, which is from 2020. It was then disclosed to the Norwegian financial publication E24, which organized an examination of the property.

The disclosure offers the first comprehensive public account of those who purchased real estate in this significant Middle Eastern financial hub. Reporters concentrated on the list’s European names throughout this initial stage of the project.

Most of them are locals or trustworthy investors. Reporters did, however, identify numerous property owners in Dubai who have been charged, found guilty or are the target of international penalties. Others are public figures whose possession of expensive properties is inconsistent with their reported incomes.

They include dozens of Europeans charged with money laundering and corruption as well as more than 100 members of Russia’s political elite, government officials, or close-knit entrepreneurs. 

Several European officials and lawmakers who have been accused of mishandling public funds are also among the listed owners — and some have failed to officially declare their Dubai properties.

Ruslan Baisarov, a Russian businessman close to the tyrant Ramzan Kadyrov of Chechnya, and Alexander Borodai, a disqualified member of the Russian Duma who served as “prime minister” of the self-declared Donetsk People’s Republic during Russia’s invasion of Ukraine in 2014, are two notable individuals who own real estate in Dubai.

Other Russians holding real estate in Dubai include Dmitry Rybolovlev, a contentious oligarch, and Roman Lyabikhov, a Communist Party politician recognized by the United States.

Daniel Kinahan, the suspected boss of an Irish gang engaged in cocaine trafficking and other crimes, is one of the Europeans. He was sanctioned by the US last month and is believed to be located in Dubai.

Another is Tibor Bokor, a native of the Czech Republic and the executive director of a cryptocurrency exchange that was penalized by the US Treasury last year for facilitating the transfer of illegal proceeds by criminals who had gotten money through ransomware. Another alleged criminal who is mentioned as having property in Dubai is Miroslav Vboh, a Slovak who is wanted on corruption-related allegations. He is thought to be residing in the emirate as cover.

Requests for comment from Baisarov, Borodai, Bokor, and Lyabikhov went unanswered. Vboh’s ownership of an apartment in Dubai was confirmed by his attorney.

The fact that these people are listed in the real estate market registries of Dubai brings to light the risk that the emirate’s lax residency requirements and “few questions asked” regulatory approach will allow dubious individuals to use it as a home away from home, a place to use real estate to launder their illicit gains, or simply as a place to store their wealth.

According to Georgetown University professor and expert on illicit finance Jodi Vittori, “Real estate is unique when it comes to money laundering because, unlike any other form of money laundering, you actually can live in and do business through your money laundering.”

According to The Tax Justice Network, Dubai is among the most opaque offshore jurisdictions in the world because of a lack of financial transparency.

The advocacy group ranks the United Arab Emirates, which includes Dubai, as one of the world’s top ten enablers of both corporate tax abuse and financial secrecy.

“Dubai has an ask-no-questions, see-no-evil approach to commercial and financial regulation, as well as foreign financial crimes,” the group wrote in a 2020 assessment. “It has consequently attracted large financial flows and some of the world’s most high-profile criminals.”

The European Union, the United States, Germany, and many other nations do not have extradition treaties with the United Arab Emirates. In reality, this implies that suspected criminal offenders can seek refuge in Dubai and escape being brought before the law.

Requests for comment from the Dubai Land Department and the Foreign Office of the United Arab Emirates were not met in time for publication. But E24, OCCRP, and their media partners did receive a statement from the UAE Embassy in Oslo.

“The claims made regarding the ownership records for properties in Dubai are untrue. According to the Embassy, the UAE operates clear regulatory structures that adhere to international laws and standards intended to prevent financial crime. A cornerstone of these procedures and activities is the Dubai Land Department.

Stephan Steinkeller- A Real-Estate Blind Spot

The sheikhdom of Dubai, which is a part of the United Arab Emirates, has internal autonomy. However, it has centered its economy on housing foreigners.

The emirate’s oil income collapsed in the 1990s, and its leadership started searching for investments abroad. It achieved success in real estate, erecting a ton of brand-new housing communities, the tallest skyscraper in the globe, as well as two man-made peninsulas in the form of palm trees.

Since that time, the emirate has relied heavily on income from real estate development, which has drawn wealthy individuals and international capital from all over the world. Currently, there are three million people living in Dubai, although only 500,000 of them are Emirati citizens.

Reporters have analyzed a leak of real estate information that includes 800,000 Dubai properties held by 274,000 foreign individuals and businesses. It demonstrates that the typical Dubai owner has more than three properties.

Professor of tax economics at the Norwegian University of Life Sciences and director of the Skatteforsk Centre for Tax Research Annette Alstadsaeter says, “Until now, no one has had this kind of information about the entire real estate market in such a well-known tax haven.”

Alstadsaeter is the head of an international team of researchers who have investigated the material that was leaked and have now released a paper related to their findings.

The researchers calculate that foreign people and businesses have spent over $145 billion in Dubai’s housing market based on data on property prices that are publicly available. London, another important location for international real estate investors, was predicted to have an offshore real estate worth $66 billion in 2019.

More than $31 billion of this sum is owned by individuals and organizations with ties to Europe and Russia, the investigation’s main areas of interest.

Some of the leak’s attributes don’t belong to specific people. Many of them are controlled by shell corporations that are registered in other tax havens.

“This is the first time we have an actual evident sum of the net worth of both offshore and locally owned properties in a tax haven,” claims Gabriel Zucman, an associate professor at the University of California, Berkeley.

One of the foremost authorities on tax havens worldwide is Zucman. He is the director of the Paris School of Economics EU Tax Observatory and has been aware of the investigation into Dubai data leaks.

“Up until recently, we were unable to quantify this type of hidden riches, but this leak alters that. As part of larger globalization, this research is a first step towards casting light on the rise of real estate investments in tax havens. It has not previously received significant research due to the lack of data, “Zucman says”.

Stephan Steinkeller- Moscow On the Gulf

The team of imprisoned Russian opposition leader Alexei Navalny gave an interesting look at Russian property ownership in Dubai last year.

Alexander Borodai, a Russian politician who purchased a 104-square-meter apartment in the opulent Grandeur Residences-Maurya complex on the Palm Jumeirah, an exclusive artificial peninsula in the shape of a palm was the subject of a thorough investigation by his Anti-Corruption Foundation that was released in December.

In 2015, as his reputation in Russian politics was growing, Borodai purchased the apartment, which was valued at over $400,000.

He was appointed “prime minister” of the self-declared Donetsk People’s Republic, an unofficial pro-Russian statelet in eastern Ukraine’s Donetsk region, at the beginning of 2014. He occupied that position for almost four months before turning it over to a Donetsk resident and became his deputy.

Upon his return to Russia, he joined the ruling United Russia party and was chosen to serve in the State Duma, the lower house of the Russian parliament, in 2021. His required asset statement did not include information about his flat in Dubai.

The information in the C4ADS leak is consistent with Navalny’s team’s findings, proving that the flat is owned by Borodai, who is subject to U.S., EU, U.K., Swiss, Canadian, and Australian sanctions.

It also has a lot more: It turns out that around 5,300 residents of the Russian Federation and individuals associated with them are recorded as owning over 9,700 properties in Dubai, making Russians one of the major foreign real estate investor groups there.

The majority are unknown private citizens, although there are some notable politicians like Borodai, government representatives, and oligarchs.

A 109 square meter flat in the Amwaj 4 building, a component of an older construction in the Dubai Marina region, is identified as owned by Roman Lyabikhov, another Duma lawmaker. It is estimated to be worth $430,000. He did not include it in his asset disclosure, like his fellow lawmaker.

US, UK, EU, and Canadian sanctions are in place against him.

Dmitry Rybolovlev, a Russian oligarch, is identified as the owner of a $3.5 million mansion on the al Khisab frond of the Palm Jumeirah.

Rybolovlev has stayed further away from Russian politics than some other oligarchs. He is said to have relocated to Europe in 2010, following the forced sale of his controlling stake in the Russian producer of mineral fertilizer Uralkali to three powerful Russian oligarchs.

The AS Monaco soccer club’s president and principal shareholder is Rybolovlev, a Cypriot. The Russian businessman was formally labeled a suspect in a corruption probe by a judge in Monaco in 2018. The judge claimed that the Russian oligarch had used gifts and football tickets to sway local police enforcement in a dispute with an art dealer.

Rybolovlev’s run-in with controversy wasn’t his first. He paid Donald Trump $95 million in 2008 to buy a house in Palm Beach, Florida, making the future president reportedly $54 million in profit. After Trump was elected president and allegations that Russia had cooperated to assist him win the election, that would subsequently come under scrutiny. Later, Rybolovlev sold the house.

Ruslan Baisarov, another well-known Russian who appears in the leak, is mentioned as owning five apartments in the Tiara Residences, a collection of opulent high-rises on the trunk of the Palm Jumeirah, as well as a home on the Palm’s al Bumaan frond.

The combined value of the six properties is around $8.5 million.

Baisarov is well-known for his strong relations to Ramzan Kadyrov, the leader of Chechnya, who has been accused of committing serious human rights abuses, including torture, and who provided troops and other military equipment for Russia’s invasion of Ukraine this year.

In addition to supporting Kadyrov’s occasionally bizarre ideas, Baisarov has funded the famed Veduchi ski resort outside of the Chechen capital Grozny and appeared in public with him, including at the St. Petersburg International Economic Forum. Because of their tight connection, Baisarov is known as “Kadyrov’s wallet.”

U.S., U.K., EU, Swiss, Canadian, Australian, and Japanese sanctions are in place on Kadyrov.

Stephan Steinkeller- Criminal Europe

A suspected cocaine trafficker named Daniel Kinahan is among the international criminal scene’s other property owners in Dubai. Kinahan is said to have found refuge in the emirate.

Kinahan is identified in the data breach as the owner of a spacious office measuring 115 square meters, located in the upscale Jumeirah Bay Tower 3, which is just 15 minutes drive from the beach. According to corporate documents and a recent report in the Irish Times, two businesses that Kinahan co-founded throughout the years claimed the same apartment, number 3005, as their workplace.

It appears that Kinahan purchased this home between the spring of 2017 and January 2018 based on information from the leak concerning his passport and Emirates ID. His suspected involvement in drug trafficking was already well-known to the public at that point. Kinahan was mentioned in a 2009 cable from Sierra Leone to Belgium that was made public by Wikileaks two years later. The cable identified Kinahan as “an Irish businessman involved in narcotrafficking throughout Europe and currently the target of a major investigation.”

The “Kinahan Organized Crime Group” (KOCG) has long been active in Spain, the United Arab Emirates, Ireland, and the United Kingdom. The gang is engaged in international money laundering as well as the trafficking of drugs and firearms, according to Irish and British courts.

The U.S. Treasury Department stated last month in a statement announcing sanctions on Kinahan and other members of the group that “the KOCG also frequently uses Dubai as a facilitation hub for its illicit activities” and the action has resulted in several deaths.

The news came after a thorough investigation involving numerous police departments, and the American embassy in Ireland has offered a $5 million reward for information leading to the capture of Kinahan, as well as of his father and brother, who are also under investigation.

Kinahan has refuted claims that he is a crime leader.

Francesco Giordano, a meat industry mogul with a headquarters in Milan, is another colorful figure that shows up in the data.

Three apartments are recorded as being jointly owned by Giordano and his business and love partner, Larisa Andreea Hangiu, in Dubai. Additionally, they are each reported as having a single unit. Their properties are valued at over $550,000 when taken as a whole.

These assets may be explained by Giordano’s firm, which sells meat in his native Italy, but that may not be the whole picture.

Giordano was detained by the Italian anti-mafia police in 2018 together with 27 other individuals, and he was accused of tax evasion.

Investigators claim that he built a sophisticated network of businesses in northern Italy through which he was able to avoid paying taxes on his company’s income. The money was subsequently transferred to businesses in Apulia, where he was raised, with the aid of a local mafioso.

They took money out of the bank through a network of nominees and hid it all everywhere, including in villa walls. After authorities discovered cash concealed in her villa outside of Milan, his partner Hangiu was also prosecuted.

The cops seized 27 businesses, opulent homes, and vehicles. At the time, no Dubai assets had been located. Giordano was detained by customs officials in 2015 at an Italian airport while traveling to the Emirates with more than 200,000 euros in cash and checks.

Two years later, the police learned from a wiretapped discussion that a dishonest officer had informed Giordano that he was being investigated for money laundering and that the police were aware that he was laundering his earnings through restaurants in Rome and Dubai

Giordano, Hangiu, and 73 other people were accused of evading taxes abroad worth 180 million euros by Italian prosecutors in February 2022. Giordano is presently being held pending trial.

Requests for comment from Hangiu and his attorney went unanswered.

It sounds dated to avoid paying taxes on meat profits. But a second European who owned property in Dubai allegedly ran a considerably more sophisticated criminal organization.

The leak claims that Czech venture entrepreneur Tibor Bokor has three Dubai homes totaling $455,000.

He formerly held the position of executive director at a Moscow-based Bitcoin exchange with official Czech registration. The exchange, known as SUEX OTC, was sanctioned by the U.S. Treasury last year on the grounds that 40% of its transaction history was allegedly connected to illegal activities. The United States had never before imposed penalties on a cryptocurrency exchange.

According to reports, a Slovak businessman wanted on corruption charges has made the emirate his hideout. The well-known attorney and lobbyist Miroslav Vboh had even represented Monaco as its honorary consul in Slovakia.

Since August 2021, when two of his accused accomplices in a corrupt scheme involving IT service orders for a government agency were detained, he has been wanted by the Slovak police.

At the moment, Vboh himself was nowhere to be seen. But a few months later, Charles Leclerc’s Formula One fans tweeted a photo of the Monaco driver dining in Dubai. One of the individuals present around the table was Vboh, who takes an interest in motorsports and has participated in the Ferrari Challenge.

Vboh is identified as the owner of one apartment in the Alef Residences building on the Palm Jumeirah, valued at close to $2.7 million, in Dubai.

Ladislav Smejkal, Vboh’s attorney, explained in an email to OCCRP that Vboh bought the flat in 2017 while the building was still being built, but he never intended to reside there. The apartment is now in “shell and core” form; construction wasn’t finished until 2021.

Due to the rise in UAE real estate prices, Výboh is currently trying to sell the apartment, Smejkal said.

Stephan Steinkeller- Fourteen OneCoin promoters indicted in Italy

The Italian Guardia di Finanza has indicted 14 OneCoin Ponzi scam promoters. The indictments were submitted at Bolzano, which is a city in the South Tyrol region of Italy.

Sadly, the names of those charged have not been made public. What is known is that the individuals who have been accused of

Financial crimes, aggravated fraud, unlawful savings gathering, illegal pyramid selling of electronic money, and illegal distribution and marketing of electronic money are all crimes with a global component.

Over 3700 OneCoin victims in South Tyrol, who collectively lost over 5 million euros, have been identified by Italian investigators.

We also know that the notorious Steinkeller brothers, who “helped” OneCoin founder Ruja Ignatova, were the target of the Guardia di Finanza’s investigation.

OneCoin was abandoned by Christian, Aron, and Stephan Steinkeller soon after its demise at the beginning of 2017.

The brothers were in charge of the Onecoin “One DreamTeam” team of promoters, which brought in about $2.5 million per month at the time.

Stephan Steinkeller made a comeback in late 2019 with Planet Impact, an MLM opportunity with an environmental emphasis.

While Planet Impact’s official Facebook page was shut down in April 2020, the company’s website is still active.

Stephan Steinkeller, who was originally from South Tyron, fled to Dubai after leaving OneCoin. There is no extradition agreement between Italy and Dubai.

Dubai is presently the world’s epicenter of MLM fraud for this and other reasons. MLM scammers on the run from the law find refuge in the city.

We are aware that there are “9 from South Tyrol and 1 from Veneto” among the remaining suspects charged.

Ruja Ignatova might be the fourteenth defendant along with the Steinkellers, making a total of thirteen.

Ignatova vanished at the end of 2017. She is thought to either be dead or being kept safe in Russia or the United Arab Emirates.

Late in 2016, Italy started to crack down on OneCoin. The AGCM issued an injunction just before the new year, effectively outlawing the promotion of OneCoin in Italy.

OneCoin was branded a pyramid scheme and outright outlawed in Italy in February 2017.

The main Italian OneCoin group’s leader, Stephan Steinkeller, gave up on the con three months later and left.

The AGCM penalized OneCoin 2.5 million euros in August 2017 for breaking the prohibition.

OneCoin was still promoted in Italy despite the fine. Promoters of OneCoin in Italy hosted a gathering in Verona in July 2019.

The Italia Independent Marketing Association Italia Facebook group, where the event was organized.

The Verona event was directed by Simon Le, Habib Zahid, and Italian OneCoin entrepreneur Luca Miatton, according to promotional materials.

Marco Agnelli, Nicola Giarcuni, Renato Zin, Luca Miatton, Patrizia Testagrossa, Alessio Mitta Miatoon, G Nithihayah Oliva, and Marco Barbagello are among the administrators of the Italia Independent Marketing Association Italia.

Following the event, several attendees were detained by Italian officials as they boarded flights out of the country.

Following Stephan Steinkeller OneCoin era and Stefan Liback’s subsequent misuse of their downline, Luca Miatton assumed leadership of OneCoin in Italy.

Miatton (on the right) has a history of lying while promoting OneCoin.

Miatton was exposed as a liar in April 2020 regarding a purported cooperation between OneCoin and Soldo for prepaid MasterCards.

Miatton was once more exposed for lying regarding the collaboration between OneCoin and the Ukrainian government in May 2021.

In a video posted on July 31 to his personal Facebook page, Miatton can be seen pitching OneCoin at a hotel in northern Italy.

Stephan Steinkeller- What is a Ponzi Scheme?

A Ponzi scheme is a fraudulent investment scheme that entices investors with high rates of return and little risk. A Ponzi scheme is a fraudulent investment operation in which money is collected from later participants to pay returns to earlier investors. This is comparable to a pyramid scam in that both rely on new investors’ money being used to reimburse the previous funders.

When the influx of new investors stops and there isn’t enough money to go around, both Ponzi schemes and pyramid schemes finally hit their bottom. The plans then start to fall apart.

• The Ponzi scam brings in new investors by promising them a substantial payoff with little to no risk, which creates returns for previous investors.
• The fraudulent investment scheme’s basic idea is to reimburse the initial backers with money from future investors.
• Companies that run Ponzi schemes concentrate all of their efforts on finding new investors because, without them, the scheme will run out of money.
• The SEC has provided advice on potential Ponzi scheme red flags, such as guarantees of returns or unregistered investment vehicles with the SEC.
• Bernie Madoff perpetrated the largest Ponzi scam, defrauding thousands of investors of billions of dollars.

Stephan Steinkeller- Ponzi Scheme Red Flags

No matter the technology employed in the Ponzi scheme, the majority have similar features. The following characteristics to look out for have been recognized by the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC):

• a promise of large returns with little risk that is guaranteed
• a steady stream of returns irrespective of market conditions
• Unregistered investments with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC)
• Clients are not permitted to read the formal paperwork for their investment because it is hidden or too hard to explain
• Customers have trouble withdrawing their funds U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission. The Ponzi scheme.

Bottom Line

When clients give money to their financial advisers or investment firms, they expect a level of fiduciary duty. Unfortunately, those funds can be fraudulently mismanaged through Ponzi schemes. By taking one investor’s money to repay another, Ponzi schemes aren’t actual investment plans. They are fraudulent investment schemes that have resulted in the loss of billions of dollars.

Stephan Steinkeller- Is He a Fraudster Hiding The Truth? (2024)

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