Belgrade call centres were reportedly involved in multi-million-euro investment fraud schemes throughout Europe

Belgrade call centres were reportedly involved in multi-million-euro investment fraud schemes throughout Europe

A suspected scam network operating out of Serbia duped an estimated 70,000 people worldwide into making bogus investments, profiting €250 million in the process.

The transnational scheme involved a former Premier League team sponsor and a convicted money launderer, Investigate Europe and the Balkan Investigative Reporting Network can reveal, in the first part of our Scam Europe series.

Cryptocurrencies. Bitcoin. Forex. Bonds. Digital trading is everywhere, and with it are organised crime groups happy to take your money. With investment fraud booming across the continent and AI ratcheting up the ante, authorities struggle to contain the tidal wave of Europe’s billion-euro scam business.

At first glance, Olympus Prime looked more like a thriving tech start-up than one of the numerous, non-descript call centres popping up across Serbia’s capital city. Housed in a high-spec design building amongst a growing business neighborhood in Belgrade, the company shared space with a Chinese cultural complex and an upscale hotel.

Yet when Serbian police entered the premises of the Olympus Prime call centre one rainy morning in January 2023, they uncovered a financial “boiler room” operation at the centre of a suspected international scam syndicate.

On the surface, “the offices were completely normal like any other corporate office - plenty of desks, chairs and computers,” says Boris Majlat, head of the Serbian High Tech Crime department. Equally surprising were the 50 staff sitting behind the computers who appeared unflustered by the entrance of armed officers. In fact, employees had been prepped for events like this. In a training video seized during the raid, managers instruct employees on how to behave in case police come calling. “Tell them you’re only offering educational materials,” the manager says to the camera, “nothing more.”

The coordinated raid was part of a Europol-led operation spanning 22 locations in Serbia, Bulgaria, and Cyprus, involving extensive police and intelligence from Germany. In addition to Olympus Prime, officers stormed three other connected call centres throughout Belgrade. Inside, workers manned specific team desks to target European citizens in their own languages. Using fake names, identities and scripted pitches, they posed as brokers to gain trust and fleece victims out of their money – and some of their life savings.

The network is believed to have targeted over 70,000 people worldwide, profiting an estimated €250 million by duping people into fake Forex and cryptocurrency investment trading, German authorities revealed in an email response to this investigation.

In Serbia, 21 people have now been indicted on fraud charges by the public prosecutor and awaiting court approval for their involvement in the scheme. And while those caught up in the dragnet are suspected to be part of an organised criminal network, those ultimately behind the alleged scheme remain elusive to authorities.

Now Investigate Europe and the Balkan Investigative Reporting Network (Birn) can reveal how businessman Eliran Oved and his wife Liat Kourtz Oved from Tel Aviv are connected to multiple firms and brands implicated in the call centre raids via a network of shell companies and frontmen.

Investigate Europe and Birn reviewed court and police documents as well as dozens of emails, databases, text messages, financial records and interviews with victims, which detailed certain alleged links to the couple. The Oveds’ suspected involvement highlights the challenges of cross-border enforcement to tackle financial fraud schemes, and the difficulty in identifying those ultimately responsible for the operations.

The Oved paper trail

On social media, the Oveds appear to be just another successful family, posting photos on social media of exotic foreign holidays. Eliran Oved, who also owns the Israeli football club Bnei Yehuda, recently received an award from Israel’s president for the team’s community work.

Yet the Oveds’ public persona hides a lucrative business taking place away from the lights of football stadiums and awards ceremonies. This investigation has tied Eliran Oved, a convicted money launderer who was sentenced to a year in prison over operating an illegal gambling website, and his wife to the alleged scam call centres. Over the last six months, our investigative team analysed dozens of documents from corporate trade registers to expose the Oveds’ business links to the suspected multimillion-euro fraud.

Investigate Europe and Birn discovered one lawsuit filed in Israel against the Oveds by plaintiffs from around the world, as well as two regulatory actions targeting Oved-owned companies which resulted in a license being revoked in the UK and a multimillion-dollar fine in Australia.

Olympus Prime, the call centre raided in January 2023, is owned by a trusted proxy of the Oveds. Other call centres part of Serbian probes were also found to have links back to the couple. A number of the brands housed in the offices of Olympus Prime and the other implicated call centres link to the Israeli couple or their business associates, this investigation found. 

The brands include FXVC - a former corporate partner of English Premier League club Leeds United - as well as brands PrimeOT, Greenfields Capital, and others that offered online trading in crypto, foreign currencies and other products. The websites were flagged as high-risk by regulators and are now offline.

In total, the four call centres connected to the Oveds allegedly netted victims in Germany, the UK, Ireland, Switzerland and Austria, alongside Australians and Canadians. Lists of victims found at Olympus Prime and obtained by Investigate Europe and Birn through a source close to the investigation show some people lost a few hundred euros, while others lost over €1 million. Reporters spoke to victims across the continent, including in the UK, Belgium, Ireland, the Netherlands and Germany.

The Oveds failed to respond to detailed requests for comment for this story by the time of publication.

“Every day he called me, and every time he asked me to invest more.” — A former Belgian IT manager

One of the alleged scams seemingly linked to the Oveds was Wingroup, an investment brand that operated from the Olympus Prime office. Our investigation uncovered that Wingroup clients’ losses were connected to the Oveds.

A former Belgian IT manager for a bank who asked to remain anonymous told how he deposited €250 with Wingroup in 2020 after seeing an ad on Facebook. A financial broker called him shortly after, helping him to begin “short selling” of stocks, a form of trading the IT manager had done before and felt familiar with. After that, he says: "Every day he called me, and every time he asked me to invest more.” He saw his account balance rising to €3,000 when he was suddenly locked out of his account and unable to access his funds, a common fraud maneuver. Invoices that he shared with Investigate Europe and Birn show that his deposit was handled by Coinshype, a cryptocurrency exchange. Our investigation found that Coinshype was controlled by the Oveds via two companies in Estonia and Australia.

Investment fraud is a key threat identified by Europol, the EU’s police agency, in its latest report on organised crime, with its scale and scope increasing at an alarming pace. Globally, the financial scam industry siphoned away over €1 trillion in 2023, with only four per cent of victims recovering their losses, according to estimates from the Global Anti-Scam Alliance. Artificial Intelligence has become a potent tool to deceive more people with realistic (often cloned) websites, scripts and videos, with social media becoming a common vector to ensnare consumers.

Eliran Oved owns a football team in his native Israel and regularly appears on local television.Youtube

Leeds United partnership and company proxies

Perhaps one of the Oveds’ most infamous investment brands, FXVC, became an official partner of Leeds United in 2020. Documents seen by Investigate Europe and Birn suggest FXVC operated from the Olympus Prime offices. The Premier League partnership deal gave them unprecedented exposure to the British market: FXVC’s branding was displayed across the club’s stadium, reaching millions of viewers each week. It was only in April 2021, that the UK Financial Conduct Authority (FCA) revoked FXVC’s licence for using "misleading financial promotions".

Leeds United said they severed all ties with FXVC after learning about the ruling, according to a BBC investigation in 2023. The club failed to respond to questions related to the partnership for this story.

A Freedom of Information request to the FCA reveals that FXVC has faced no fines and was not required to compensate British victims. On paper, FXVC appeared to be owned by a Cypriot holding fronted by nominees. But a closer look at the fine print in the company’s accounts disclosed Kourtz Oved as the ultimate beneficiary.

FXVC was a corporate partner of English Premier League side Leeds United.Facebook

A similar pattern was identified across the alleged scam network, where trading websites were fronted by the Oveds’ business partners.

Key associates included Cypriot ex-footballer Nikos Andreou, Bulgarian lawyer Vera Nachkova Andonova, and Miloš Radivojevic, a Serb with Bulgarian citizenship understood to be Andonova’s husband. Radivojevic is the only one currently under investigation by Serbian authorities in connection to a money laundering probe, according to details of the case shared with Investigate Europe and Birn. The three partners collectively served as directors for five Oved companies, and held shares in 14 firms linked to the alleged network.

Andonova and Radivojevic failed to respond to detailed requests for comment. Andreou could not be reached on the only email address found for him online.

Another of the brands seemingly connected to the Oveds and operating out of Belgrade call centres named in the indictment was PrimeOT. According to a UK Financial Ombudsman decision in 2022, one of the victims of PrimeOT who lost nearly €150,000 in fake investments was instructed to send their money to the Oved-controlled Coinshype. Brands like PrimeOT lured victims in through targeted ads on Google and Meta platforms. Once people clicked through the advertisement and entered their details, the high pressure tactics began.

‘I’ll get you three houses in Spain’

In late 2017, Malcolm, a semi-retired oil industry manager from north-east England, opened a Google ad for Greenfields Capital, a brand managed by the Oveds’ associates and targeting UK citizens. After an initial investment of £500, a “broker” called, urging him to put in far more the very next day.

“He persuaded me to invest £34,000,” Malcolm recalls. “He told me he’d double it within a week and pay the gains straight into my bank. Needless to say, the week came and went, and no gains were received. All the investments he set up were at zero.”

Alarmed at his sudden large losses, Malcolm began to scrutinise the company. He realised the London address displayed on Greenfields Capital’s website was a fake.

Investigate Europe and Birn found that the UK and Vanuatu entities behind Greenfields Capital listed Vera Nachkova Andonova as a shareholder. A trusted proxy of the Oveds, she has served as director in four of their companies.

Malcolm’s story is one of many. When John, a 64-year-old Scottish builder, stumbled upon an ad on Google in 2018 FX Trade Market – a brand linked to Oved associates – it seemed like a golden opportunity. The site even claimed to be endorsed by Dragon’s Den, a popular British TV show where entrepreneurs pitch ideas to millionaire investors.

“We are not dealing with amateurs. This is organised crime, and unless we respond accordingly, they will simply move elsewhere and start again.” — Boris Majlat, Serbian prosecutor

The man who phoned him the next day sounded credible and John did not realise the call likely came from Belgrade. "He was quite amicable and really charming," John says. "I told him I’d love to buy a house in Spain and he told me: ‘I’ll get you three houses in Spain.’"

Between 2018 and 2019 he poured in £25,000 and even persuaded his daughter to invest. Online, his portfolio appeared to skyrocket, climbing to £130,000. "My wife didn’t know very much about it, and I was hoping to surprise her with a big chunk of money,” he recalls. Then one day, as he was checking his accounts, he realised all his money was gone. His calls went unanswered and the man who once promised him three houses had vanished.

"When all that money disappeared and I couldn’t get in touch with anybody,” John recalls, “it must have taken years off my life.”

Inside Belgrade boiler rooms

While exploiting clients like John and Malcolm, fake brokers enjoyed some of the best working conditions in Belgrade. With Serbia’s average monthly wage around €700, call centre agents were among the country’s top earners. Best performers raked in staggering bonuses. In November 2022, one agent pocketed an extra commission-based bonus €63,000, while another took home €84,000.

Five teams at Olympus Prime worked around the clock, divided by language and region. A German-speaking team nicknamed "Panzer" preyed on German victims, whereas others focused on Scandinavian and English-speaking countries. Internal chats uncovered by police revealed just how little sympathy call centre agents had for their victims, at times labelling them “idiots” for entrusting their money with them. In one exchange, after an agent stated that a target had €40,000 to invest, a colleague replied: “Great, snatch it!”.

Employees at the call centres used language-specific code names such as “Jack Weiss” or “James Eastwood”, details from the indictment seen by Investigate Europe and Birn show. After getting clients to make initial small investments into their accounts on cloned websites which they believed were real transactions, clients were encouraged to keep investing after seeing fake profits. One noted incident in the indictment obtained by Investigate Europe and Birn through a source close to the investigation, describes a Swiss customer who “continued to deposit money in the total amount of €50,000, and when the injured party requested a payout, his account showed that there were no funds."

Serbian police raid a Belgrade call centre in January 2023.Private archive

Serbian prosecution says the Olympus Prime call centre relied on a tiered hierarchy: Israeli managers at the top, senior Serbian staff running day-to-day operations, and local call agents targeting victims. Our investigation found that Olympus Prime is owned by Cypriot ex-footballer Nikos Andreou, a key associate that appeared to act as a frontman for the Oveds in Coinshype.

“We are not dealing with amateurs. This is organised crime, and unless we respond accordingly, they will simply move elsewhere and start again,” says Boris Majlat, the Serbian prosecutor on the case.

‘Unless we respond, they will simply move elsewhere’

Although people were arrested during the January 2023 raids and more were charged later, several key individuals are still on the loose and Majlat admits his frustration. “We’re facing organised, transnational, crypto-based fraud, yet the court treats it like a basic scam," he says. "These are not cases for ordinary prosecutors. We need specialised units. Without them, we cannot win."

Since 2019, German prosecutor Nino Goldbeck has been heading a special task force out of  Bamberg dedicated to tackling online investment fraud. “If, for example, we search a call centre with 200 employees, only a small fraction will end up in the dock at the end of the day,” he says.

“This is due to resource constraints, prioritisation, and jurisdiction issues.” Since 2019, Bamberg investigators have carried out 15 raids across Europe in coordination with other national law enforcement agencies. So far, around 80 individuals have been convicted in financial scams in German courts.

Serbian authorities say their investigation is ongoing around the Belgrade call centre raids, but with key figures abroad and multiple jurisdictions involved, justice is proving elusive. When approached for comment about the Oveds’ ties with the alleged financial scam network, Majlat said he “cannot comment on the ongoing investigations.”

In Germany, the Public Prosecutor General’s Office in Karlsruhe is working alongside Serbian law enforcement to continue to investigate the raided Belgrade call centres. They were unable to provide further comment on the matter.

In August 2020, Anna Leitner, a 64-year-old secretary working at a university in southern Austria, stumbled across an advertisement online. The ad promised to reveal the investment secret of Austrian billionaire and Red Bull founder Dietrich Mateschitz. Anna, who does not want to use her real name, believed the ad to be legitimate, clicked on the link and registered with PrimeOT, a supposed investment platform linked to the network of Eliran Oved.

Shortly after Anna entered her details, she received a call from a man posing as her “personal account manager” by the name of Gabriel. She recalls how the man quickly gained her trust through social engineering, using a well-known tactic of exploiting human emotions to create a bond with the target. Before long, Anna and Gabriel were speaking three to four times a week, usually for more than half an hour at a time. “He probably thought I was a money maker,” Leitner told Investigate Europe.

When Gabriel asked her to download Anydesk, a legal software programme that allows remote access from other computers, Anna did not hesitate. This allowed him access to her personal banking information to make trades, and she could see Gabriel investing more money on her behalf. Anna says she could watch in real-time the cryptocurrency prices rise, when in fact the investment data on her screen was all fake. 

More and more, the account manager would share supposed personal information with Anna. “Gabriel often told me about how he had spent his weekends with his wife and children,” Leitner recalls. He also shared how well the investment business was increasing his personal wealth. “Once he told me he had bought his wife a gift with a bonus payment,” Anna says.

Gabriel also regularly sent personal emails, shown to Investigate Europe. When Anna hesitated to make her first large deposit, Gabriel sent her a photo of himself. It showed a handsome man in a white shirt smiling as he looked at his smartphone. Anna replied to Gabriel with a screenshot of a transfer receipt. A few weeks later, in an email in mid-October, he wrote: ‘I always carry you in my heart.’ If something does not go as the supposed financial advisor expects, the tone shifted from warm to intense, as in another email shown to Investigate Europe and Birn: ‘I have called you four times but you are not answering. I wonder what has happened. I am worried.’

Soon the conversations turned even more pressurised. “It quickly became about how I could invest in this or that, and whether I could scrape together more money,” Leitner says. The account manager initially asked Anna for €5,000, then after a few weeks sent a payment request for €10,000. By the end of 2020, she had transferred money six times, in multiple digits, to a Maltese bank account. 

Leitner soon started losing large sums, and became suspicious. “I wanted to withdraw my money,” she says. In an email in January 2021, Anna wrote to her financial advisor: ‘Dear Gabriel, please, I URGENTLY need you to call.’ Finally, by email, she received instructions on how she could take out her funds. She was assured that it would require only a few clicks. “But that [possibility] didn’t exist at all,” Leitner says. Shortly afterwards, her account was deleted. “I couldn’t log in anymore. They had kicked me out.” The money was gone. “Then I realised I had screwed up,” Leitner says. 

Altogether Anna invested – and lost – €29,250. In March 2021, Anna tried with the help of a Berlin lawyer to recover her money. But all efforts came to nothing, she says. Two and a half years later, in November 2023, Anna received an email from her lawyer, informing her that “despite our efforts, including complaints and further investigative approaches”, that the prosecutor had “closed the investigation against PrimeOT.”

The Oveds and their associates have not been charged of any crime related to the Serbian call centre scheme named in this investigation. However, Oved businesses have previously been involved in cases related to potential scams.

In 2020, Australia’s financial regulator fined a firm AUS 20 million for “unconscionable conduct” after investors lost over AUS 11 million in just a year. While the ruling did not explicitly name the Oveds, this investigation has identified Liat Kourtz Oved as the main shareholder of the concerned firm. Elsewhere in Australia, Coinshype - the cryptocurrency exchange platform linked to Belgrade call centre profits - saw a director arrested this March for allegedly handling scam proceeds.

In Israel, 38 plaintiffs sued the Oveds and several others in 2020 accusing their companies of promoting alleged scams, including UK-targeted Greenfields Capital. It is understood the case was settled out of court.

Despite these legal hurdles and amid European authorities’ struggle to close in on the Oveds, the couple continued to expand their ventures. An offshore vehicle owned by the Oveds and associated with the former Leeds sponsor FXVC launched two new trading brands: Klips.com and 50K.trade. The Klips trademark was even registered by one of the couple’s Israeli firms, linking their direct involvement.

Meanwhile, many victims still grapple with what happened to them. Some of those approached for this investigation refused to speak, afraid they might be targeted by scam agencies again. For others, the memories were simply too painful to revisit. "It is the worst thing to talk about," says one woman who lost €54,000 to Greenfields Capital, “because as a victim, you are trying to forget it.”