The sentence is six years and ten months in prison.
(Photo: dpa)
Dusseldorf In a trial of international online investment fraud before the Munich I Regional Court, an alleged accomplice of the so-called “Wolf of Sofia” has been sentenced to six years and ten months in prison for fraudulent activities and gang fraud. The verdict is not yet legally binding.
The 45-year-old Israeli had admitted all allegations at the beginning of the trial. “We are satisfied with the verdict,” said Chief Public Prosecutor Thomas Goger to the Handelsblatt. “It meets our expectations.”
As “Vice President Sales”, the accused is said to have been the head of a fraud gang, at the head of which was also the man who is known by the nickname “Wolf of Sofia”.
The Munich court has now imposed the placement of the defendant, who admitted in court that he had used a lot of drugs, in a rehab facility – and also confiscated 760,000 euros.
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The trial concerned a sum of damages of around 8.7 million euros, it relates to the period from March 2016 to March 2019. The indictment listed several hundred victims.
Investors from Germany, Austria and Switzerland, among others, lost their supposed investments of between 250 and several hundred thousand euros. The number of unreported cases is likely to be higher than the official amount of damage.
The online brokers with the names Safemarkets, Optionstarsglobal or XTraderFX attracted their customers with unique offers and offered them the opportunity to invest in high-risk financial products such as contracts for difference, foreign currencies or crypto currencies via their platforms. However, the ordered transactions did not take place at all – the funds were withdrawn directly by the alleged broker.
Constant calls as call centers
Through constant calls from the broker’s call centers, the injured parties were encouraged to transfer more and more amounts – often to compensate for allegedly existing losses. This is exactly where the “Vice President Sales” is said to have worked. According to the prosecutor, the gang operated at least four call centers in Bulgaria, Serbia, Bosnia and Herzegovina and Georgia.
Lawyer Markus Moser from the Herfurtner law firm in Munich also sees the judgment as positive. “Finally one of the backers could be prosecuted,” says Moser.
In addition, the sentence is absolutely justified. However, Moser describes the collected 760,000 euros as a “drop in the ocean”. The injured party could hardly expect any reimbursement.
First trial of this kind in Germany
It is the first time that the case has been brought to trial in Germany. There were arrests as early as the beginning of 2019, including a German. However, the suspect died while he was in custody in Saarbrücken.
The alleged head of the gang, whose nickname “Wolf of Sofia” is based on the character of Jordan Belfort from the film “The Wolf of Wall Street”, was arrested at the same time. The Israeli was sentenced to four years imprisonment by the Vienna Regional Court for offenses against Austrian citizens, but is now at large again. The European Court of Justice is currently examining in a preliminary ruling whether there can be a trial against him in Germany because of the damage caused here.
In the case of the 45-year-old accused, the public prosecutor and defense can appeal to the Federal Court of Justice within one week.
With agency material
More: Accomplice of the “Wolf of Sofia”: Charges for online investment fraud in the millions