2018 saw the end of the dishonest Israeli binary options market, with many of the companies going out of business. Globally, millions of investors suffered losses that might have totaled $50 billion. There will be numerous additional trials as a result of the legal process, which is currently underway in many jurisdictions. German prosecutors in Koblenz brought charges against James Henry Wygodzki and Israeli Avi Itzkovich. They are charged with creating and managing a vast network of cybercrime. Allegedly, both enter guilty pleas.
The never-ending Fraud Stream
The cybercrime network surrounding Avi Itzkovich and James Henry Wygodksk was recently referred to as the LibraMarkets network by us. Given the quantity of phoney brands these cybercrime groups have operated, it is challenging to identify them. This Israeli-controlled LibraMarkets network was linked to numerous other well-known binary options scam brands between 2014 and 2021. Tradorax (TDorax) was the first to get involved in it about 2014; other players included KontoFX, KayaFX, InstaFX, InstaFX24, NovaTrades, UProFX, ProuFX, or EZCryptoPlace. One of the final fraudulent brands they ran before it failed was LibraMarkets.
The boiler rooms behind the brands with the operational legal entities stayed the same, but when too many victims complained, the brands with the operating legal entities—mostly merely empty offshore front firms with nominated directors and shareholders—vanished. These boiler rooms and their payment facilitators have been the real attackers and fraudsters behind the thousands of binary options schemes.
Jack Henry Wygodski’s Boiler Rooms
The boiler rooms in Bulgaria around Mercure Group EOOD (previously RAX Media EOOD) and ABC Global EOOD served as the hub of this LibraMarkets cybercrime network.
Apart from Itzkovich and Vygodzki, the Bulgarian company register lists the following individuals as managers: Michael Zalk, Eden Sror, Daniel Natan Huluban Mandl, Avraham Aviv Hileli, Dror Geht, Or Tal Shlomei, Daniel Koen, Jonathan Grinfeld, Erez Legerbaum, Tal Kerzfeld, Moran Kerimov, and Maor Ben-Zvi.
As boiler room managers, these people were accountable for tens of thousands of victims of different binary options brands. The extent of the charges will be revealed during the trial and subsequent Koblenz investigations. A complete clarification in the sense of the victims is desirable.
Jack Henry Wygodski’s Binary Options Scams
Between 2014 and 2018, the hubs of fraudulent binary options brands’ illicit boiler rooms were located in Sofia, Bulgaria, and Belgrade, Serbia. Talented young individuals from the area who were (mis)led by their Israeli managers were the boiler room agents, sometimes known as financial advisors or brokers.
The parties hosted by the Israeli boiler room managers in Belgrade were legendary. Coke and alcohol were freely flowing on the Danube party ships. It was the same story in Sofia. A few of the accused Israeli boiler room managers, like Jacki Fitelzon (see report here), informed the court that their fraudulent activities led to their drug and alcohol addiction. Fitelzon was one of the boiler room managers of Gal Barak‘s Israeli E&G Bulgaria and was sentenced to 82 months in prison in January 2022. He has asked the court to transfer him to a rehab centre in Israel.
The Tradorax Beginning
2013 saw the introduction of the binary options program Tradorax (later renamed TDorax) by Gibraltar-based Alagos Limited. The program was run by AM Capital Ltd., Anguilla, and the Marshall Islands from 2015 until it disappeared in the middle of 2016. Per Gunnar Astrom, a Swedish national, was the only director and shareholder of this corporation, and prosecutors in multiple jurisdictions filed lawsuits against him.
Tradorax and TDorax were managed by the Bulgarian boiler room operators Mercure of Avi Itzkovich and James Henry Wygodzki during this time, resulting in the loss of several millions of dollars for thousands of victims.
