Leaders of the now infamous hashish funding rip-off Juicy Fields are lastly being dropped at justice, two years after the corporate collapsed and a whole lot of thousands and thousands of Euro’s of traders cash had been misplaced.
This week, it was revealed that two German residents regarded as on the very high of what’s suspected to be a Russian state-sanctioned rip-off, will see prices introduced in opposition to them by the Berlin public prosecutor’s workplace.
This follows a protracted and complicated investigation by each worldwide police companies, together with Europol and Eurojust, in addition to an in-depth deep dive into the corporate by a workforce of journalists.
Whereas prosecutions are persevering with throughout a number of international locations, the overwhelming majority of the €645m invested into the scheme stays misplaced, and victims stay unlikely to obtain any compensation.
What occurred?
Juicy Fields, an alleged hashish funding platform, collapsed in July 2022, revealing what’s now referred to as an enormous fraud operation with at the very least €645m invested worldwide.
Buyers had been promised massive returns on ‘digital hashish plantations,’ however when suspicions arose, it turned clear that funds had vanished. The fallout uncovered a community of largely Russian people utilizing false identities and faux passports.
Now, in accordance with a brand new report printed by a world workforce of journalists from CORRECTIV, in cooperation with DR(Danish Radio), Spiegel, Paper Path Media , ZDF, the Dutch broadcaster BNNVARA, the standardin Austria and Svenska Dagbladet in Sweden, Russian-German Viktor Bitner, and a German depend who calls himself Friedrich Ulrich Graf von Luxburg Fürst zu Carolath-Beuthen are set to be charged.
In April 2024, large-scale raids on suspects within the Juicy Fields Ponzi scheme led to vital asset seizures and arrests throughout 11 international locations.
Over 400 legislation enforcement officers carried out 38 searches, seizing a complete of €4.7m in financial institution accounts, €1.5m in cryptocurrencies, €106,000 in money, and €2.6m in actual property.
Further luxurious objects, together with automobiles and art work, had been confiscated together with quite a few digital units and paperwork, aiding the investigation into certainly one of Europe’s largest cannabis-related fraud circumstances.
Months later, the Workplace of the Legal professional Normal (PGR) secured a ruling authorizing the extradition of Russian citizen Sergei Berezin to Spain, following a request from Spanish authorities to prosecute Berezin for aggravated fraud, cash laundering, and membership in a legal organisation. He’s now believed to be the mastermind behind this scheme.
Talking to Enterprise of Hashish, Eurojust, which was instrumental in coordinating the worldwide case in opposition to Juicy Fields, mentioned that this was the primary case they’ve handled the place ‘authorized’ hashish was concerned.
“Within the case of Juicy Fields, it was clear from the outset that many international locations had been concerned, so it took time to get a transparent overview.
“Eurojust’s employees, nationwide members, their assistants, and my direct colleagues in operations all work to arrange coordination efforts, resembling central coordination facilities or coordination conferences.
“On this case, we established a Joint Investigation Group (JIT), which is probably the most complete device for worldwide cooperation. A JIT permits investigators from one nation to work actively in one other and permits computerized sharing of proof and knowledge.”
Shady particulars emerge from new report
Following conversations with witnesses, former staff, and specialists, the workforce of reporters has managed to uncover new particulars behind the community and construction of the operation, together with ties to the Russian mafia.
The story begins in Berlin, the place Juicy Fields operated out of a small workplace. Initially, the corporate projected a profitable hashish enterprise, with a frontman named Victor Bitner, who has ties to Russian organized crime.
Bitner was a pawn, later accused by Juicy Fields’ leaders of stealing €1.5m. This led the corporate’s ‘head of safety,’ Igor Kekshin, to pursue Bitner.
The directive escalated to a homicide order, allegedly from Berezin, Juicy Fields’ suspected mastermind. Bitner fled, and Kekshin later turned a witness in opposition to Juicy Fields, offering testimony to European authorities.
Kekshin, who had beforehand labored for the Wagner Group after serving a jail sentence for kidnapping and extortion, instructed investigators he knew Juicy Fields was a fraudulent scheme from the beginning, designed to take traders’ cash with out fulfilling the promised investments.
Analysis into Juicy Fields reveals an organized construction with Berezin and Vitaly Markevich on the high, managing a community of people concerned in cash laundering, social media, and banking.
In keeping with reporting from DR, Markevich stays a free man, regardless of an arrest warrant being issued throughout the April worldwide raids. Russia has refused to cooperate with the worldwide investigation and won’t extradite him for his alleged involvement.
It’s additionally revealed that some people raised funds from legal teams in Saint Petersburg to finance the fraudulent operations.
As beforehand reported by Enterprise of Hashish, specialists imagine such large-scale fraud would require political safety, and Russian secret companies probably turned a blind eye to those operations, which could even serve political functions, resembling producing chaos or gathering intelligence.
Comply with the cash
In 2021, the corporate underwent structural modifications: Berlin-based Juicy Develop GmbH acquired a 20% stake in a Swiss firm, which was renamed Juicyfields AG, and a number of other people with noble titles joined the board.
Amongst them was Friedrich Ulrich Graf von Luxburg Fürst zu Carolath-Beuthen. In the summertime of 2022, legal investigators started specializing in the German businessmen and managers from the Luxburg Carolath Group in reference to Juicy Fields, together with von Luxburg, who claimed to be a sufferer and blamed the Russian masterminds behind the operation. Nonetheless, investigators view these claims as defensive.
Regardless of fabricating his noble lineage, he used the title to achieve social leverage. He spent 9 years in jail for earlier fraud schemes, together with promoting non-existent investments in a pretend financial institution and a non-existent wind turbine firm.
After Juicy Fields collapsed in August 2022, the police raided von Luxburg’s workplace and villa, uncovering €349,000 in money, in addition to proof of worldwide monetary dealings in locations like Venezuela and Switzerland. Authorities imagine von Luxburg acted as a cash launderer for the Juicy Fields operation, probably receiving as much as €5m for his function.
Investigators traced the cash flows from Juicy Fields via massive worldwide networks involving greater than 50 corporations throughout 20 international locations, with funds funneled via Cyprus, Lithuania, Malta, and Estonia earlier than being cut up into cryptocurrency and dissipated.
In the meantime, monetary evaluation revealed suspicious crypto transactions resulting in Garantex, a Moscow-based change with ties to legal and terrorist financing, which is sanctioned within the USA.
There are additionally reported connections between Garantex and the Russian authorities. It’s believed that a few of the remaining funds had been utilized by Berezin and his associate to buy properties in Tenerife and put money into native hashish golf equipment.
The Juicy Fields case continues to unravel with weird twists, a lot of which appear to be calculated strikes by the masterminds to confuse and distract authorities and the media.
In late 2023, a sequence of assaults had been made in opposition to the previous Juicy Fields CEO, Depend Stefan von Luxburg, together with the arson of his automobile and a graffiti message studying ‘From Russia with Love.’
Regardless of these intimidation efforts, the investigation is transferring ahead. Public prosecutor Ina Kinder is specializing in key suspects like Victor Bitner and Friedrich von Luxburg, searching for to maintain the case manageable and keep away from pointless complexity. In the meantime, Sergei Berezin stays in jail, awaiting his trial in Spain.
