Spanish police on Wednesday arrested a key figure of the Spanish quarters of fake brokerage investment platform, EverFX. The police identified the arrested top gun as 'Pablo A'.
According to OCCRP, whose investigations in 2020 exposed the massive investment fraud network, 'Pablo A' was rounded up at the El Prat Aiport in Barcelona, Spain, after he rounded off a trip from Romania. A joint statement by police forces Guardia Civil and Mossos d’Esquadra noted that 'Pablo A' and his teams made contact with victims “through call centers located on the periphery of the European Union.”
Olive Press, an English-language newspaper for the expatriate community in Spain, reported that about 17,000 persons were scammed in Spain alone. This is even as OCCRP mentioned that EverFX was only one of about 470 investment 'brands' linked to the same organized crime group.
Coordinated Action Brings in EverFX Criminal Pablo A
According to a joint statement shared by the police forces and cited by the OCCRP, the crime network was profiting about 50 million euros every three months from its thousands of victims from across the world.
Meanwhile, the arrest of the key figure comes a month after European authorities, through a coordinated campaign, shut down 15 call centres of the network in Albania, Georgia, Ukraine, Bulgaria and North Macedonia. During the raid, which was conducted between November 8 and 9, police and prosecutors from Germany, Spain, Sweden, Ukraine and six other European nations arrested five suspects and seized thousands of euros in cash, among other things.
The campaign was led by Eurojust, the European Union agency for judicial cooperation, which funded the efforts.
EverFX in the News
In May last year, the United Kingdom Financial Conduct Authority banned Cyprus-based ICC Intercertus Capital Limited, an operator of EverFX, from offering CFD instruments in the country. At the time, the FCA said EverFX was onboarding many British traders on its overseas entities which are not authorized to offer services in the UK.
“Many consumers were subsequently induced to transact with overseas members of the EverFX Group, which had no authorization to provide regulated services in the UK meaning that consumers lacked the same level of protection,” the FCA explained.
However, ICC recently told the Spanish newspaper, El Pais, that it has no knowledge of the inquiry into EverFX. Meanwhile, EverFX was active in sports sponsorship, as it sponsored the Spanish football giant, Sevilla FC and has even extended the deal.
