Tag: AML

FinTelegram’s review of SENDS has uncovered a new structural red flag: the public-facing website of Smartflow Payments Limited, the FCA-authorised EMI behind SENDS, is owned by a separate UK company, GANGA PAY LTD, and used under a software licence. In isolation, that may be a routine outsourcing arrangement. In the context of SENDS’ rapid acquiring growth, Ukrainian control persons on both sides, and ongoing whistleblower allegations around casino-linked merchant flows, it raises a much sharper compliance question.

The RatEx42 cyberfinance rating platform has issued its highest-level warning against the purported cryptocurrency exchange Meteorex (MeteorEx s.r.o.). Operating with zero verifiable blockchain infrastructure and hiding behind a Czech shell entity, the platform has been classified as a "Critical Risk" and downgraded to Tier D on the DAREX Index. European acquiring banks and PSPs are urged to immediately block all associated fiat transactions to prevent potential money laundering and investment fraud.

Volt, a KNF-licensed open-banking provider backed by top-tier investors appears in recorded deposit flows for illegal offshore casinos targeting users in Germany. FinTelegram’s review shows Volt’s checkout embedded in payment journeys routed through crypto-linked intermediaries, raising hard questions about merchant due diligence, payment blocking under German gambling law, and the compliance perimeter for regulated PISPs.

A player communication reviewed by FinTelegram raises a serious compliance question for Revolut: did the fintech initially tell a customer that Mastercard chargebacks had been raised and finally decided, only to later admit that no chargebacks had been submitted at all? Against the backdrop of FinTelegram’s long-running investigations into illegal offshore casino payment rails, the case sharpens a broader issue.

FinTelegram’s review of RagazzeInVendita’s card-payment flow indicates that the visible payment layer Pagorapido may only be an intermediary facade. Test-payment evidence, cross-platform parallels with XLoveCam and CrushOn.ai, and traffic data point to process1.payments.site as a recurring adult-payment gateway with a strong technical association to Payabl infrastructure.

Clearhaus, the Danish acquirer owned by Unzer, says it has become the first Danish acquirer to launch a Payment Facilitator (PayFac) solution. The move is strategically important: it lets regulated platforms embed card acquiring directly into their own products while Clearhaus stays in the background as the licensed acquirer. A short FinTelegram analysis.

Pagorapido is a card‑payment brand embedded in the Bulgarian Hydra Group’s RagazzeInVendita (RIV) adult‑content ecosystem. It appears to function as an in‑house merchant‑of‑record/payment vehicle rather than a transparent, independently regulated PSP. Its public website shows strong signs of being a placeholder or façade, while the underlying legal entity in Spain has an irregular registry status.

The French Supreme Court (Cour de Cassation) has just recently firmly established the liability of payment processors like WorldPay and Seroph Holding (AlgoCharge) for facilitating unauthorized binary options schemes. As restitution payouts loom, this critical ruling sets a formidable due diligence standard that could ripple across the EU, offering renewed hope for victims pursuing institutional giants like ING's Payvision.

While European gambling regulators intensify their crackdown on illegal offshore casinos, a more uncomfortable question is emerging for the banking sector: are major retail banks, through rigid chargeback practices and weak scrutiny of miscoded card transactions, helping illegal gambling networks stay operational?

The newly published Payvision chats could become the most damaging documentary evidence yet in Europe’s long-running broker scam scandal. According to EFRI and the cited criminal case files, Payvision did not merely process transactions for Lenhoff and Barak-linked fraud networks — it allegedly helped them solve payment problems, reroute settlements, and survive banking disruption, all while generating lucrative fee income.

AXIOM presents itself as a decentralised trading platform, but its own materials describe a branded, fee-based crypto service stack with wallet functionality, no-KYC onboarding, yield features, and leveraged perpetuals trading. For EU compliance analysts, that raises a central MiCA question: is this really “DeFi,” or a brokerage-like access layer inside the regulatory perimeter?

Oro.gg, operated by Belize-registered Tusitier Ltd, illegally targets European and British players without valid regulatory licensing. The casino facilitates unauthorized gambling through heavily disguised fiat-to-crypto payment rails. Our analysis reveals that Polish VASP ChainValley—acting as the successor to suspended Lithuanian utPay—systematically circumvents banking blocks, masking casino deposits via mainstream e-wallets like Skrill, Neteller, and Revolut.