Kosovar is accused of deceiving German investors, taking 42m euros through Call Center in Kosovo

One of the biggest fraud processes ever developed in the Saarland republic begins Tuesday at the Land Court in Saarbrücken. The process has to do with online fraud over 1100 investors are said to have been deceived, or have been lost together, more than 40m euros.

For three and a half years, investigators from Saarbrücken have investigated the alleged network of fraud, conducting 35 raids in several European countries and providing a total of 5.1 terabytes provided, broadcast albinfo.ch. The first indictee's trial will begin Tuesday.

It's 29-year-old Azem S. The public prosecutor accuses him of fraud of enormous proportions. It is considered part of a gang that has robbed investors of their savings through online trade platforms.

Fraud: In online trading portals called “XMarkets.com”, “Zomtrader”, “Option888”, “TradeInvet90” and “TradosVest” operators offered supposedly profitable financial bets. According to the public prosecutor, consultants from Eastern Europe's call centres (Call Center) have persuaded investors to transfer more and more money to the portals in question.

In the end, the money essentially “appeared”. Money deposited by deceived investors is taught that only formally entered financial bets, but actually went directly into the pockets of suspected frauds, writes Sr.de (Saalländischer Rundfunk).

Two and a half years in prison, without trial

Such a center call in Kosovo is charged with being led by accused S. Along with a partner. His defence lawyer, questioned by the SR, has declined to comment on charges weighing his client, traces albinfo.ch. But he has criticised the fact that his client has been behind bars for more than two and a half years without judicial decision.

In the summer of 2019, investigators from Saarbrücken along with Kosovo authorities had closed the call center. A little later, S. was arrested on summer vacation in Albania. He was later held in custody pending extradition for about a year, while awaiting his trial in Germany since the summer of 2020.

The damage attributed to the gang, which is said to belong to S., is huge: Only the content the process is dealing with before the court of land includes a loss of about 42 million euros, scattered among over 1100 investors, transmits albinfo.ch. According to the Public Prosecutor's Office, the highest damage a individual has suffered is 5.5m euros, while the average is 35 thousand euros per person affected.

The court only deals with cases in which the injured or committed criminal charges or damage has been more than 5,000 euros. Hence, the total damage caused by the gang is much higher. After a data analysis, investigators assume the damage has actually been around 115m euros. Therefore, according to the public prosecutor, this is also the biggest case of fraud for which the authorities of this republic have ever conducted criminal prosecution.

866 document files

The Acropolis has 728 pages and all documents taken together are divided into 866 files. Clearly, the court has set 28 dates for the main review.

Under the investigation, the main current suspect believed to be the leader of the group has also been arrested. He was originally in detention in Vienna and later in Saarbrücken. He died in the summer of 2020 in the Lerchesfl prison of a drug overdose, records albinfo.ch. The exact circumstances of his death remain unclear.