Roman Balanko lied about PaymentWorld Moldova agreement
It is increasingly looking like Roman Balanko has made off with $13.1 million dollars of stolen Zeek Rewards Ponzi funds.
Last we checked in it appeared Balanko had lied to the Zeek Receivership about his ownership of PaymentWorld Hong Kong.
In filed sworn declarations, Balanko claims he was the CEO of PaymentWorld LLC in the US and had no direct control over PaymentWorld Limited in Hong Kong.
Balanko claims there’s a distinction between Payment World LLC and PaymentWorld Limited.
PW-USA and PW-HK operated as two distinct, independent entities without any authority to act on behalf of or control the other.
This is important because, if true, it separates PaymentWorld LLC in the US and Balanko from the $13.1 million dollars the Zeek Receiver is trying to recover.
Balanko maintains that the $13.1 million in question was invested with Rex Ventures Group, transferred to Payza who sent the funds to PaymentWorld SRL in Moldova.
After the SEC busted Zeek Rewards, PaymentWorld SRL transferred the $13.1 million to Tusar Bank in Russia.
Balanko maintains that PaymentWorld LLC only oversaw the transaction and at no time had direct control over the funds.
The problem for Balanko is that in a leaked 2012 Service Agent agreement he signed off as the sole Principal of PaymentWorld Limited (Hong Kong).
Another representation Balanko has made is that PaymentWorld LLC only ever had an agreement with PaymentWorld Limited.
At no time did PW-USA have a contractual relationship with either Victoriabank or Tusar Bank.
PW-USA only contracted with PW-HK, who in turn contracted with PW-SRL, who in turn contracted with Victoriabank.
As per a new leaked agreement seen by BehindMLM, this also appears to be a lie.
The leaked agreement is dated May 15th 2012, roughly three months before the SEC shut down Zeek Rewards.
The agreement is between PaymentWorld SRL (Moldova) and PaymentWorld LLC (USA).
As per the agreement;
The parties desire to enter into this agreement for PaymentWorld LLC to provide customer service, risk management, underwriting and all other goods and services necessary to allow certain merchants designated by PaymentWorld SRL and PaymentWorld LLC to process payments.
Commencing on the effective date, servicer (PaymentWorld LLC) shall provide the payment services for each of the merchants in accordance with the terms and conditions of this agreement.
Whether Zeek Rewards is one of the merchants the service agreement refers to is unclear.
What is clear however is, despite Balanko’s representations, PaymentWorld LLC and PaymentWorld SRL had an agreement concerning payment processing prior to Zeek Rewards being shut down.
As CEO of PaymentWorld LLC, this puts Balanko in control of funds deposited by Payza into PaymentWorld SRL, irrespective of whether he laundered them through PaymentWorld Limited in Hong Kong first.
The agreement is signed by Roman Balanko as CEO of PaymentWorld LLC and Sergii Ganzha as Director of PaymentWorld SRL.
Ganzha is believed to be a proxy Balanko used to set up PaymentWorld SRL as a shell company in Moldova.
Supporting this is Payza’s recently filed October 14th surreply to the Receiver’s contempt motion.
Payza (dba M.H. Pillars, Ltd) is seeking to remove themselves from the filing and claim that M.H. Pillars ‘never had dominion and control over the $13,174,015.48 at issue‘.
To hold MHP jointly and severally liable with PaymentWorld and/or VictoriaBank for the complicit sins of both flies in the face of the equitable posture this Court sits in as well as the doctrine of equitable apportionment.
Payza claims it’s in the “same position” as the Zeek Receiver, as it too is trying to establish what PaymentWorld and its “numerous shell entities” did with the money.
The evidence supports the Receiver’s proposition of PaymentWorld’s existence of sham entities in an attempt to avoid liability in this Court.
The evidence provided by Payza is mostly sourced from an affidavit filed by Executive Vice-President Firoz Patel.
PaymentWorld, via an independent agent, sought out and recruited MHP, then Alertpay, as a client.
PaymentWorld, at the direction of Balanko, referred MHP to PW HK.
MHP agreed to this relationship on the advice of Balanko but understood that PW HK and PaymentWorld were one and the same.
MHP directed all questions concerning balance inquiries, transfers, financial matters and the like to Balanko, individually and in his officer capacity of PaymentWorld and PW HK.
At no time was a distinction of PaymentWorld and PW HK ever communicated to MHP.
Other than the Servicing Agreement, MHP never received correspondence from PW HK or an employee of PW HK.
MHP was never directed to send correspondence directly to PW HK; rather, all communications and points of contact went through PaymentWorld.
The purported owner of PW HK, Alexander Korkin was never introduced to MHP or its officers.
Conversely, Balanko held himself out as the owner of PW HK. MHP first learned of Mr. Korkin’s involvement with PW HK through this matter.
Consequently, MHP has never received any correspondence with or had any contact whatsoever with Korkin.
Like Sergii Ganzha in Moldova, Korkin is also suspected of being a proxy Balanko used to set up PaymentWorld Limited as a shell company with.
At all times relevant to the business relationship, PaymentWorld held PW HK as one and the same entities.
After MasterBank pulled the plug on PaymentWorld’s bank accounts, Payza claim Balanko set up the new account at VictoriaBank.
Once the Master Bank relationship had been terminated, MHP received notification from PaymentWorld employee Ernest Ros, that “[PaymentWorld] was going to be boarding MHP over to a new bank,” which was VictoriaBank.
MHP had no control or decision making as to a new settling bank.
The decision on a settling bank was a unilateral one, and it appearing to MHP, said decision was made by PaymentWorld and/or Balanko.
Balanko was also cited by PaymentWorld employees as being responsible for sending bank wires to and from the VictoriaBank account.
Following the onboarding of the Payza transactions being settled with VictoriaBank, on July 17, 2012, Anderson sent an e-mail to MHP stating that “Roman should be sending the wire out tonight for first month…”
At no time did NM, PaymentWorld, or Balanko state that a separate party such as Korkin or Ganzha would need to authorize any such transfer.
The ordinary course of practice between PaymentWorld and MHP was that Balanko, at his sole direction, would initiate the transfers.
This flies in the face of Balanko claiming he had no control over the VictoriaBank account.
After Zeek Rewards was shut down, Payment World employees also told Payza, on two separate occasions, that Roman Balanko was PaymentWorld’s contact in Moldova.
Laced throughout Balanko’s testimony are his efforts, or lack thereof, to have the Receivership Assets frozen and consequently turned over.
Specifically, Balanko testified that upon learning of the Freeze Orders from either the Receiver and/or MHP, he immediately called Platon, Korkin, and Ganzha to ensure sufficient funds were held.
However, at no time did Balanko tell Patel about this request.
To the contrary, the evidence proffered by all parties clearly establishes that Balanko continued to ignore not only the Receiver’s requests but also Patel’s.
Appearing to get nowhere with his multiple requests Patel, sought out answers from VictoriaBank.
In turn, VictoriaBank’s response was that MHP and/or Patel were not authorized users on the account at VictoriaBank and it was unable to assist further.
VictoriaBank would of course only deal with Balanko. Not withstanding VictoriaBank itself appears to be in on Balanko’s apparent fraud.
Slowly but surely Balanko’s scheme to keep $13.1 million in stolen Zeek funds is coming undone.
Payza’s surreply filing on October 14th is the latest on the Receiver’s case docket.
Once the Judge has had some time to digest all of this, I’m expecting a decision will be made on the matter.
That decision will hopefully hold Roman Balanko entirely accountable. And seeing as Roman Balanko is based out of the US, hopefully the DOJ follow up with criminal charges.
Stay tuned…
Footnote: Our thanks to Don@ASDUpdates for providing a copy of Payza’s October 14th surreply filing.
