Based on my research so far I am quite certain that IBAN Wallet is a scam. Why? And who is still happy to promote this fraud? Read below…
Note: if you missed the first posts about IBAN Wallet, please start with those:
Part 1: IBAN Wallet - another P2P ponzi?
Part 2: IBAN Wallet - hiding in Estonia?
Part 3: Who owns IBAN Wallet?
1. Fake reviews
Many bloggers write shallow, promotional reviews with no real research, but some go a step further - they publish fake “reviews“ written by company itself:
jeangalea.com/ibanwallet-review/
moneycheck.com/iban-wallet-review/
dividendsdiversify.com/iban-wallet-review/
factornerd.com/iban-wallet-investment-platform-intro/
Of course, no legitimate investment platform and no serious blogger would do stuff like this. But some bloggers don’t care what they publish and IBAN Wallet takes advantage of it.
2. Fake employees
If you check Iban Wallet LinkedIn profile, it says - that there are 246 employees working for this company:
But if you check “Terms and Conditions“ page of ibanwallet.com, then you get following info:
“Iban Wallet” means New Generation Market SIA, a business with company number 40203215233, with its head office at Oberwallstraße 6, 10117 Berlin, Germany and registered in Latvia;
So is this company employing 246 persons? No, not really. Based on it’s 2019 report it employed 0 persons, and it had 0 EUR in turnover:
So who are all these people on LinkedIn then? According to info I received - at least the sales team - all the “asset managers“ and “financial advisors“ are hired as contractors - they don’t get a salary, only 1.5-2% commission from the investments attracted and they sign a contract with a company that is not related to IBAN Wallet or it’s founders.
When this Ponzi scheme collapses, IBAN wallet’s sales guys will not only lose their commissions, but they might also get sued by investors themselves. So is it a good idea to promote a scam? Probably not. 2% reward is a joke, and risk is huge.
In short - website lists an empty shell company with no activity, and at least part of so called “employees“ are getting scammed by company as well.
3. Fake company
Someone from IBAN Wallet team decided following:
“Our investors are so dumb that they don’t care what company we mention in our Terms & Conditions. Let’s set up a shell company in a shady apartment in Latvia, and later change the company name and owner to some random Afghan guy. No one will notice.“
More info here: kristapsmors.substack.com/p/iban-wallet-hiding-in-estonia
Of course, this is not the only company. IBAN Wallet have created at least 20+ legal entities based on research done by one of this blog’s readers: Iban Wallet - Summary.pdf - but there is no such thing as a holding entity or main company.
And investors have no connection to these 20+ companies, only to the empty, inactive, unreachable Latvian company with an owner from Afghanistan.
4. Fake owners
There is a Latvian or a Mexican company mentioned in ibanwallet.com, depending from which country you visit the website:
Latvian company is owned by Ahmad Maiwand Noorzai - this guy is not reachable, companies phone number does not exist
99.9% of Mexican company is owned by Jorge Alberto Díaz Flores, but he has no authority. When I asked him questions, he asked to send them to PR:
More info here: Who owns IBAN Wallet
5. Shady promoters
Kuetzal, Envestio, Monethera, WiseFund, Grupeer - have caused at least 36 million EUR in damages and all have active or pending lawsuits. Another thing in common? Target Circle affiliate network promoted these questionable platforms to bloggers and other publishers:
And of course - the same shady Target Circle network is also promoting IBAN Wallet. So who is behind this company?
Dr. Heiko Hildebrandt, CEO at Target Circle
Heiko must be good at economics, but I have a feeling that he skipped some Ethics classes. I don’t think it is a coincidence that Target Circle promoted most of Baltic P2P scams and now is also promoting IBAN Wallet. Heiko also refused to answer the questions I sent him:
Who else is refusing to answer questions? IBAN wallet, of course, and all the other scams as well. And yeah, other Target Circle employees are following CEO’s example.
Oskars Skreija, Senior Account Manager at Circlewise
Oskars was a bit more responsive in the beginning and also promised several times to get all the answers from IBAN Wallet or shut them down. And IBAN Wallet even promised to share audited financials till end of November. But of course - there are no financial reports, no answers and no action taken from Oskars side. His promises are as strong as the buyback guarantees from P2P scams:
6. Criminal investigations
There is a criminal investigation against IBAN Wallet in Mexico:
Dec 9, 2020 - “Given the increase in fraud by "investment companies", Condusef could have greater capabilities, says AMLO“
Dec 8, 2020 - “Grupo Iban, in the crosshairs“
Oct 23, 2020 - “The FGR investigates Iban Wallet for irregular fund-raising“
And Latvian company register also informed me that they have sent info to Criminal Police Division to investigate potential offenses by New Generation Market SIA.
7. Warning from altroconsumo.it
My blog has couple of thousands of visitors, posts with memes and started only a year ago, so if you don’t take me too seriously, I understand. But check out altroconsumo.it:
The most widespread association for the protection and defense of consumers in Italy. Discover our tests on products and services, insights and investigations.
This is one of the biggest sites in Italy, according to similarweb altroconsumo.it gets about 5 million visits per month:
And what is their view about IBAN Wallet? Read the full article here. Some quotes:
So any money you put into his accounts is not protected by any interbank deposit protection fund. Not only that: the company, despite being registered in the United Kingdom, is not directly authorized by the British market authority - the FCA , the equivalent of our Consob - to be able to offer these investment services.
As if that were not enough, nowhere on the company's website is it specified who these other "intermediary" companies are to which your money is lent, nor, least of all, who are the savers who eventually receive it. You expose yourself to a double risk: that end users do not pay back the "intermediary" companies and that they do not pay Iban wallet.
Furthermore, the company does not publish half a shred of the budget on its website (in some places with lame Italian). Why?
Stay away
8. Hidden receiver of funds
The Latvian company mentioned on ibanwallet.com has no activity, 0 EUR turnover. So where is all the investor money going? To this IBAN account:
IBAN: GB40LOYD30801286558082
But who owns it? Ibanwallet.com refuses to answer. When I asked this to IBAN Wallet’s Mexican company owner & CEO, his answer was following:
In short - even Jorge Alberto confirmed that Ibanwallet is just a “brand and lead generator“, but providing answers about who receives and controls investors money? Those questions were too difficult, so I have not received any response to this:
Key takeaways
Based on my research, I am convinced that IBAN Wallet is a scam.
Some bloggers and Target Circle affiliate network are still happy to profit from a fraud. They think it is reasonable to wait for 2+ months for answers from IBAN Wallet.
Common thing among scammers - refusing to answer questions.
P.S. Join “High-risk investments“ Telegram group for an informal discussion.
4.1 stars on Trustpilot, but even the blind should be able to spot the fake reviews.
I wont be surprised if all those Envestio type frauds by using digital framework and electronic banking are part of Russian asymmetric warfare to get some relief against sanctions and at the same time to damage ecomonic security in European countries. Sorry if i'm pranoid :) Solid investigation Kristaps, keep it up.