Bulgaria drops Nexo investigation, no evidence of fraud
Bulgarian authorities have dropped an investigation into Nexo.
Nexo was a non-MLM crypto Ponzi pitching passive returns of up to 10% annually.
Despite not being registered to offer securities in Bulgaria and thus operating illegally, in closing their investigation the Prosecutor’s Office claimed they found
no evidence of money laundering, tax crimes, computer fraud, and providing banking services without a licence.
A US regulatory investigation by the SEC found Nexo had laundered ~$9 billion through securities fraud. Nexo settled the SEC’s charges in January 2023 for $45 million.
As reported by Sofia Globe, unlike their US counterparts, Bulgarian authorities are unwilling to uphold the law.
The prosecutor’s office statement on December 22 said that Bulgaria had no regulatory framework regarding cryptocurrency assets and Nexo’s products were neither investment, nor financial instruments.
This is in stark contrast to the SEC’s position on Nexo;
“If you’re offering or selling products that constitute securities under well-established laws and legal precedent, then no matter what you call those products, you’re subject to those laws and we expect compliance,” said Gurbir S. Grewal, Director of the SEC’s Division of Enforcement.
Offering unregistered securities in Bulgaria is very much illegal. Securities in Bulgaria are regulated by the Securities Market Supervision, which Nexo isn’t and has never been registered with.
Bulgaria’s investigation into Nexo started in late 2022. Authorities at the time were investigating what they referred to as an “organized crime group”, suspected of “money laundering, tax offenses, banking without a license (and) computer fraud”.
This is in line with the SEC’s finding in the US.
In January 2023, the same month the SEC filed charges, Bulgarian authorities raided fifteen addresses in Bulgaria’s capital, Sofia.
Following the raids, Bulgarian authorities claimed
evidence has been collected that a person who used the platform and transferred cryptocurrencies has been officially declared a terrorist financing person.
Nexo was co-founded by Bulgarian nationals Antoni Trenchev and Kosta Kantchev.
BehindMLM’s interest in Nexo was piqued following a report from Novanite, which tied Trenchev and Kantchev to OneCoin.
According to Novinite, prosecutors suspect that Bulgarians behind Nexo participated in a scheme orchestrated by Ruja Ignatova.
The suspicions are that the Bulgarians behind the large company acted according to the scheme of Ruja Ignatova and the OneCoin pyramid led by her.
Upon learning they were under investigation in the US, both Trenchev and Kantchev are reported to have fled to Dubai.
A visit to Nexo’s website today reveals the company is still pitching investors on annual returns of up to 16%.
Nexo remains unregistered to offer securities with the SEC or Bulgaria’s Securities Market Supervision.
As of November 2023, SimilarWeb tracked ~2 million monthly visits to Nexo’s website.
The majority of Nexo’s website traffic originated from Argentina (16%), Italy (13%), Spain (9%), France (6%) and the UK (5%).
Nexo isn’t registered to offer securities in any of these countries.
Yeah so if you were wondering how OneCoin is still headquartered and operating openly in Bulgaria…
FYI they are not ‘securities’ in the UK… They have to apply AML though.
Can’t speak for the rest.
Will point out for the vast majority of tokens (Ozedit: snip, see below)
FYI passive investment scheme = securities offering. This is true in every country on the planet that has a regulated financial market.
Like Bulgaria, the FCA is notorious for not regulating MLM related securities fraud.
If you wish to discuss tokens that’s a separate matter that has nothing to do with investment schemes like Nexo.
Passive Investment Scheme in the UK like a earn program in Nexo isn’t a security, like i said, our laws are quite clear. (Ozedit: snip, see below)
Yes, the laws in the UK are quite clear. If you’re offering a passive investment scheme you’re either registered with the FCA or are committing securities fraud.
fca.org.uk/firms/authorisation (scroll down to “consumer investment firms” and then “investment platforms”).
Notwithstanding the FCA banned all crypto investment schemes in October 2023.
Every country with a regulated financial market has some sort of securities law equivalent. Now please sit down. Thanks.
For any country to declare ‘No evidence of fraud’ (for something as obviously illegal as this ponzi is) must be involved in it themselves, or there are mafia protection units ensuring that the kingpins and the criminals within their ponzi schemes remain untouched.
Shocking.
In Bulgaria there is no mafia in government, the government is the mafia.
rferl.org/a/bulgaria-sanctions-us-peevski-boshkov-zhelyazkov-corruptiion/31287870.html
Interesting. I thought onecoin was closed after the collapse.
@ Tom
You really have no idea what you are talking about.
If you are actually in the UK you need a universal credit benefit for failing to understand basic English.
That or you are a serial ponzi promoter in the UK who says things like this to cloud things – a Khan, Zahir, Islam brother, Kamran Hye, etc
I’m really impressed that you see the connection between one coin and nexo. A lot of people don’t want to see this.
Do you have information about Nexo’s ties to the communist security service and its positions of power in bourgeois politics and the criminal world?
In reality, this is the mafia, there is no other mafia! There is a battle between separate gangs, as was the case with Cosa Nostra in New York, but at the top, a committee rules!
This link with info about the Magnitski list and the mafia in Bulgaria have nothing with the reality. Such type of mafia there is in every European country. Or you want to show you better with links.
The lacks of Magnitski there is only because of their older alliance with the government in US. The mafia in Bulgaria is only one structure, very well covered and hidden exactly with such of media popular publication.
This Mafia is very strong and must be destroyed but it is not bigger also the corruption than similar examples in the other part or Europe. This is the true!
Another theories are only part of very specific type of political propaganda. In the same opinion is also the chief EU prosecutor Laura Kioveshi. The bigger corruption is there, where are the majority of the capital (cash), this is very old theory.
So, Bulgaria still the purest country in the union….. But let we talk about the mafia it’s persistence in the MLM world! What is hidden there ? I thing Nexo is very interesting start point for such of question !
That’s a bit beyond the scope of BehindMLM.
Hard disagree. From my limited MLM research into Bulgarian politics Bulgaria’s reputation as the most corrupt country in the EU is well-deserved.
Evidently connections to the Bulgarian government. See: OneCoin.
Hmm! Strange conclusion but ok. The information for connections of Nexo with ex communist security services comes from the same sources that you mentioned in your publication, I mean Bulgarian media.
This is the reason I ask if you have some deeper search on ! I’ll share some info with you. I ask because I also lead several investigations via online sources and I have many publications in different countries using Google translator and another apps of course.
About the reputation I m also not agree because the same kind of reputation you can find via media for another European countries. A lot of links also.
There is very very big difference between the reputation formed from media and the reality in first place many of the biggest media corporation are politically connected and some another are with criminal connections.
This is not something new and there are a lot of facts, books and different kind of investigation about that. A lot of.
If we start with such of links with info for Bulgaria and another countries I believe strongly I can win 🙂 So, this is another kind of conversation and I will made publication about that in this year.
This is no conspiracy this is absolutely clear mathematical statistics:). However this is my opinion and you will see why when I’m ready with the publication.
Out of the conversation who is most and more I’m strongly agree that in Bulgaria the mafia is very strong, very specific and it operate very close with another organised criminal groups in the world.
I also believe that our mafia very well presented in the MLM criminal world. I want to reveal these facts and I thing Nexo is interesting case about that.
You can use in quick google translator with copy-paste 🙂
bivol.bg/nexo-trenchev-ds-borisov.html
This is one of the famous investigative media in Bg. However they also have some interesting links with the authority and I’m not every time agree with them.
However the biggest part of the info in this publication comes from official archives such a commercial data base and similar. This is the reason I take this link. There are another publication of course and I also have more deeper search in.
P.S. This ДС in the text comes from Bulgarian “Държавна сигурност” (National security). This is the name of the communistic security services like Stazy in Germany.
I feel like something is lost in translation here. I’m not arguing against Nexo having ties to the Bulgarian govt.
If you want a deeper research project, feel free to stop by OneCoin’s still open offices in Sofia. Let us know how it goes.
Something is definitely getting lost in translation and I also can feel it. I started my session here by praising you for your efforts and for paying attention to these. Nowhere I mentioned that you were disputing anything, I just asked if you had such information or if you were interested in having it. 🙂
I joined because I noticed that you are one of the few journalists who pay attention to the one coin – nexo connection.
I started with a question about ДС, because according to my modest, but quite voluminous research so far, that’s exactly where one of the connections is.
I will definitely check what is happening with the One Coin office in Sofia and I will definitely let you know! I’ll even try to do it today! 🙂
No attack from my side against you, the opposite, about 90% match in our views over many topics that I found in your publications.
Ok ! I’ll be back soon with info about the One Coin office in Sofia !
All good. BehindMLM covers the MLM industry. Our interest in Nexo was because it was tied to OneCoin, an MLM company.
So, definitely there is some kind of activity on the address where is the ex office of one coin in Sofia but I went too late today so the door was closed.
I found a lot of data for attempts of ex partners to restart their activity in Bulgaria but this was for a very short period of time. A lot of speculation also.
So, give me two days more I lol bring here answers. I just want to check first all facts and addresses.
Hi,
Sorry to be gone for a week, but some urgent matters have come up. Regarding the office of One Coin in Sofia, I found the following:
The so-called office is located in a multi-storey building in the center of Sofia, which was all owned by Ruzha Ignatova and more precisely by her companies.
It is important to say companies, because in them, although formally, other persons also participate.
At the moment, the whole building is under a new owner, there is limited access at the main entrance (with a chip or magnetic card and code) and there are no visible signs of any company work nor advertisements and signs of any of the six companies there according to the commercial register.
The companies are:
BlockWave Tech
One Network Services LTD
ANTIQUE PROPERTY LTD.
B & N CONSULT
One Network Services LTD
ARTEFIX EUROPE
All of these companies were connected directly or through proxies to Ruzha Ignatova during One Coin’s expansion.
At the moment, some of these have changed address registration, but all have new owners and managers. It should be emphasized that they formally develop activities different from that of One Coin.
This fact and the fictitious change of ownership allows them to exist purely legally. Some of the companies are actually developing activities, others are not, but this is a broad topic related to the capital generated by One Coin and their distribution after the disappearance of Ignatova.
I went two consecutive days, at different times of the day, to observe the building and did not notice any people entering or leaving. Of course, I may not have there at the right time but not very possible.
Before she (Ruzha) was wanted and her organisation was prosecuted, she managed to invest a large part of the acquired cash in buying expensive and quickly liquid properties in various places around the world. This is also happening in Bulgaria.
Among the Bulgarian properties are also three luxury buildings in the central part of the capital Sofia, and one of them is the building that was the central office of One Coin at the indicated address, Slaveykov Square 6A.
This transaction took place at the beginning of February 2018, as Valeri Manchev was also a representative of the Dubai-registered company Ravenr Limited in the notary’s office. In addition to the buildings, one of Ignatova’s companies was also sold, namely ANTIQUE PROPERTY Ltd.
The buyer is the famous Bulgarian financier and banker Emil Manolov Hersev, through his company BEA DIVA OOD. Mr. Hersev is the current owner of the entire ONE COIN building.
In total, Hersev bought three companies from Ignatova along with their properties:
ANTIQUE PROPERTY, ELMAZ PROPERTY and ONE PROPERTY. Apart from three very expensive buildings in the center of Sofia, these properties also include a luxurious villa in Sozol (a resort on the Black Sea). However, these are only Hersev’s personal transactions.
There is information available in the media in Bulgaria that the former head of the investigation, Petyo Petrov, (who is currently wanted and charged) also bought properties from Ruzha Ignatova, which he then transferred to Hersev.
The banker in question explains to the Bulgarian media that he acts as an agent, strictly according to the ancient rules of classical private banking: “I mean the canonical interpretation of the term private as a personal, confidential relationship, for example, according to the model and standard of the Swiss Privatbankiers.”
In this way, at least formally, the real owner remains unknown. However, this is not the case with Ignatova’s companies, as a check in the commercial register shows, for example, that the manager of ANTIQUE PROPERTY Ltd. is only Emil Hersev, and the 100% owner of the capital is his BEA DIVA OOD.
Emil Hersev is a former deputy governor of the Bulgarian National Bank, tried and acquitted of bank draining, and what is rarely mentioned but an important fact, a former agent of the communist State Security, which was simply a regional branch of the Soviet-era KGB.
Regarding his acquaintance with Ruza Ignatova, Hersev says that they know each other from the time when they worked together for McKinsey & Company.
So at the moment, there are not signs of any business activities in the former office building of One Coin in Sofia. If you look through the windows on the 0 level, yes somebody may be was there but this can be connected with the maintenance of the building or other.
Today in Sofia there was a media briefing by the American ambassador here, representatives of the FBI, the Attorney General of Bulgaria and the chairman of the State Agency for National Security.
The briefing stated that all of Ruzha Ignatova’s former properties would be seized, and the ambassador announced a $5 million reward for information leading to her arrest. It was also reported that a transfer of 15 million was detected related to her entourage without further details.
Thanks for sticking your neck out and investigating. It is much appreciated.
Saw this and it’s on my list for today. I’ll believe Bulgaria takes OneCoin seriously when that Sofia office is finally seized and there is no trace of OneCoin left.
Yes! This is exactly what’s happen. Here no body talk about the connection of one coin and Nexo but I hear info that minimum 40 persons who worked before for Ruja now are in Nexo office.
Nothing about the connections of these two companies with the communist State Security. I’m digging about that fact. And finally we must say that Ruja is a gypsy. This is so important for tracking her.
The following organization chart shows which companies were founded by Ruja Ignatova and who was involved. Unfortunately I can’t read the Bulgarian names, who can help me?
ibb.co/2F5b6P9
@Melanie.. make a screenshot and transfer to Google lens for translation. Works for me.
@ Sol
I grew up in apartheid South Africa. 12 years of indoctrination at school and then serving in the apartheid South African security forces. I even got commended despite my family being prominently anti-apartheid.
Racial discrimination in SA wasn’t just tolerated. It was actively encouraged and entrenched in legislation.
So why am I having a problem in whether Ruja is a “gypsy” or maybe not? And why kinds of behaviours are important with certain groups of people?
I knew Ruja and spent many hours with her and her family and they would have “been white” in apartheid South Africa.
Take your prejudice and please fuck off.
While she may not be a “true” gypsy, she is a narcissist, sociopath, pathological liar and a true criminal.
@Trudy M
Many thanks for the tip. I found another version in my archive, which has been partially translated. Interesting is the fact that the Bulgarian mafia boss Hristophoros Amanatidis – Taki is mentioned on the far left.
ibb.co/XWnH13H