Beautiful Virgin Islands

Wednesday, Sep 03, 2025

Authorities allege ex-IDF intel officer ‘mastermind’ behind €200m scam

Authorities allege ex-IDF intel officer ‘mastermind’ behind €200m scam

An Israeli man who founded a binary options trading platform has been named by Austrian authorities as one of the masterminds of a massive “pan-European” fraud scheme.

Austria’s Ministry of the Interior, which oversees police and public security, has cited Israeli citizen Ilan Tzorya, founder of the binary options platform Tradologic, as one of the masterminds of a fraud scheme that allegedly netted over 200 million euros.

The January/February 2021 issue of the ministry’s magazine “Offentliche Sicherheit” (Public Safety), featured an article describing how federal police have, since 2017, investigated an Israeli-run multinational ring of allegedly fraudulent call centers running financial websites. The investigation has thus far led to 11 suspects being taken into custody as well as a conviction of Tzorya’s former business associate Gal Barak.

Tzorya, who also spells his surname Tzroya, denied any wrongdoing, telling The Times of Israel he believes the claim originates with a rival of his who is out to harm him.

According to investigators, the ring duped consumers into investing in binary options and contracts for difference (CFD) — forms of gambling on supposed stock movements — and on cryptocurrencies, but used software that could manipulate the prices to ensure the fraudsters came out on top.

Until recently, media reports on the scheme have revolved around Barak, 33, who reportedly owned call centers in Belgrade, Sofia, Sarajevo, Pristina, Tbilisi and Kyiv. The Times of Israel has previously reported on Barak’s arrest and the allegations against him.

Reports in Bulgarian, German and British media have referred to Barak as the “Wolf of Sofia,” and described him as the ringleader of the massive scam being investigated by Austrian and German police. In September 2020, the Vienna Regional Criminal Court sentenced Barak to four years in prison.

But the January/February article claimed for the first time that Tzorya, who has hitherto stayed out of the limelight, was also a “mastermind” of the scheme under investigation and that he in fact founded the company, Tradologic, that allegedly made the fraud possible, according to Austrian police.

“The accused Israeli citizen Ilan T. [Tzorya] is considered to be one of the masterminds behind the websites Option888, OptionStars and Speartrader,” the article said.

“He was confronted by investigators from the Federal Criminal Police Office in Vienna with the allegations,” it added.

Responding to these claims, Tzorya confirmed to The Times of Israel that he was questioned by Austrian police several weeks ago, but said that he flew to Austria and answered questions voluntarily and has not been arrested.

He said that if Austrian police had thought he was a fraud mastermind they could have arrested him on the spot.

“If they had thought so, they could have easily, and should have arrested me a few weeks ago when I was in Austria. It’s obvious I am not the mastermind behind these sites,” he said.

The Austrian Interior Ministry article also highlighted Tzorya’s background as an intelligence officer in the Israel Defense Forces.

‘More than an ordinary internet scam’


According to the article, the plethora of fraudulent online trading websites has become a “pan-European fraud phenomenon,” with just the network of call centers around Barak inflicting about 200 million euros in losses on victims worldwide.

“Skillful acts of deception on the Internet cause devastating financial damage and human suffering,” said Gerald Rak, a senior law enforcement official who oversees financial investigations and asset recovery for the Austrian Federal Police.

According to Austrian police, Barak ran websites that included XtraderFX, Option-Stars and Goldenmarkets, all of which lured investors with promises of quick profits as well as claims that German and Austrian celebrities had earned money through online trading. Investors would start out depositing a few hundred euros, but later be cajoled and induced by trained call center employees using fake identities to “invest” more and more of their money.

“After the customer has transferred the money, ‘brokers’ simulate

supposed trading in financial instruments,” a press release accompanying the Austrian Interior Ministry article explained.

“While the customers assume that they are now trading in the advertised financial instruments, there is no actual trading on the market. In fact, the [financial] charts presented can be updated using specially developed software that can be manipulated arbitrarily by the perpetrators,” the press release alleged.

Investors never earned money trading on these websites, Austrian police further alleged.

“The money flows into the money laundering network and the victim has no chance of receiving a payout,” said station sergeant Martin Grasel, who investigates white-collar crime for the Lower Austria Criminal Police Office.

Grasel said the investigation began in September 2017 when the Wiener Neudorf police station in Lower Austria received a complaint from a victim who had lost more than 100,000 euros on the Option888 and Speartrader websites.

As Grasel began investigating, numerous victims across Austria came forward with similar accounts of alleged online trading fraud.

“I was immediately aware that there was much more to this than an ordinary Internet scam,” he said.

Criminologists and law enforcement officials in Europe and elsewhere say that online consumer fraud has reached epidemic proportions. A recent European Commission survey found that 56 percent of European respondents said they had been exposed to a scam or fraud in the last two years.

Unlike traditional criminals, online fraudsters rely on reputation laundering, hiding in plain sight behind a veneer of legitimacy provided by a soporific press, using their ill-gotten gains to attain public leadership roles and using an opaque network of corporate dealings to obscure their true involvement in criminal activity.

Grasel said he noticed that many of the allegedly fraudulent websites used software produced by an Israeli-founded Sofia-based company known as Tradologic.

‘Crime as a service’


In January 2019, Grasel said in the Interior Ministry article, Austrian police raided Tradologic’s Bulgarian offices in Sofia and seized large amounts of digital material. Using this material, prosecutors were able to prove that victims had been defrauded, prove that the software could manipulate investors’ trades, and were given a window into the scope of the fraud, Grasel said. He noted that Tradologic had processed a total of more than $710 million of victims’ money, an amount in excess of the 200 million euros of fraud alleged in this particular investigation.

“The [Tradologic] software was programmed in such a way that the fraudsters were always able to manipulate trades. For example, the prices were changed at short notice at a certain point in time in order to exceed a limit value, whereby the trade was automatically closed and the desired result achieved. These possibilities also existed through the assignment of risk levels. The higher the victim’s risk level was set, the higher the probability that the victim’s trades would generate losses through automated manipulation,” Grasel said.

Grasel alleged that Tradologic not only provided software, but a full suite of services for would-be scammers who wished to set up a fraudulent website and call center business.

“In addition to the software, Tradologic offered other services, such as shell companies with straw men, bank accounts or payment service providers,” he said.

Under questioning, Grasel said, recently convicted fraudster Gal Barak had alleged that Tradologic constituted an entire “ecosystem” of fraud whose business model was “crime as a service.”

Newsletter

Related Articles

Beautiful Virgin Islands
0:00
0:00
Close
Germany in Turmoil: Ukrainian Teenage Girl Pushed to Death by Illegal Iraqi Migrant
United Krack down on human rights: Graham Linehan Arrested at Heathrow Over Three X Posts, Hospitalised, Released on Bail with Posting Ban
Asian and Middle Eastern Investors Avoid US Markets
Ray Dalio Warns of US Shift to Autocracy
Eurozone Inflation Rises to 2.1% in August
Russia and China Sign New Gas Pipeline Deal
China's Robotics Industry Fuels Export Surge
Suntory Chairman Resigns After Police Probe
Gold Price Hits New All-Time Record
Von der Leyen's Plane Hit by Suspected Russian GPS Interference in an Incident Believed to Be Caused by Russia or by Pro-Peace or by Anti-Corruption European Activists
UK Fintechs Explore Buying US Banks
Greece Suspends 5% of Schools as Birth Rate Drops
Apollo to Launch $5 Billion Sports Investment Vehicle
Bolsonaro Trial Nears Close Amid US-Brazil Tension
European Banks Push for Lower Cross-Border Barriers
Poland's Offshore Wind Sector Attracts Investors
Nvidia Reveals: Two Mystery Customers Account for About 40% of Revenue
Woody Allen: "I Would Be Happy to Direct Trump Again in a Film"
Pickles are the latest craze among Generation Z in the United States.
Deadline Day Delivers Record £125m Isak Move and Donnarumma to City
Nestlé Removes CEO Laurent Freixe Following Undisclosed Relationship with Subordinate
Giuliani Seriously Injured in Accident – Trump to Award Him the Presidential Medal of Freedom
EU is getting aggressive: Four AfD Candidates Die Unexpectedly Ahead of North Rhine-Westphalia Local Elections
Lula and Putin Hold Strategic BRICS Discussions Ahead of Trump–Putin Summit
WhatsApp is rolling out a feature that looks a lot like Telegram.
Investigations Reveal Rise in ‘Sex-for-Rent’ Listings Across Canada Exploiting Vulnerable Tenants
Chinese and Indian Leaders Pursue Amity Amid Global Shifts
European Union Plans for Ukraine Deployment
ECB Warns Against Inflation Complacency
Concerns Over North Cyprus Casino Development
Shipping Companies Look Beyond Chinese Finance
Rural Exodus Fueling European Wildfires
China Hosts Major Security Meeting
Chinese Police Successfully Recover Family's Savings from Livestream Purchases
Germany Marks a Decade Since Migrant Wave with Divisions, Success Stories, and Political Shifts
Liverpool Defeat Arsenal 1–0 with Szoboszlai Free-Kick to Stay Top of Premier League
Prince Harry and King Charles to Meet in First Reunion After 20 Months
Chinese Stock Market Rally Fueled by Domestic Investors
Israeli Airstrike in Yemen Kills Houthi Prime Minister
Ukrainian Nationalist Politician Andriy Parubiy Assassinated in Lviv
Corporate America Cuts Middle Management as Bosses Take On Triple the Workload
Parents Sue OpenAI After Teen’s Death, Alleging ChatGPT Encouraged Suicide
Amazon Faces Lawsuit Over 'Buy' Label on Digital Streaming Content
Federal Reserve Independence Questioned Amid Trump’s Push to Reshape Central Bank
British Politics Faces Tumultuous Autumn After Summer of Rebellions and Rising Farage Momentum
US Appeals Court Rules Against Most Trump-Era Tariffs
UK Sought Broad Access to Apple Users’ Data, Court Filing Reveals
UK Bank Shares Dive Over Potential Tax on Sector
Germany’s Auto Industry Sheds 51,500 Jobs in First Half of 2025 Amid Deepening Crisis
Bruce Willis Relocated Due to Advanced Dementia
×