We hear about fraud
cases all the time, but the Payza scam which involved a Swedish cooperative
society was one of the largest in recent years.
It began in 2010 when the members of Themko used Payza
as the payment processing company to transfer 1.2 million dollars into their
parent companies bank account. Terry Gilder: the CEO of Themko contacted Payza
to make sure that the transaction had been processed correctly. Imagine his
horror when he was told that the money had not arrived on schedule.
He then
checked with his own bank and was told that the sum of $1.2 had been withdrawn
as agreed. He contacted Firoz Patel at Payza and was told the money had been
routed via an investment company in Cyprus called Fiberty. Unbeknown to Terry
Gilder, Firoz Patel was the sole shareholder of this company. Suspecting that
the situation would get worse, Firoz Patel allowed Fiberty to be taken over by
another company called Hamervate. He then told Terry Gilder that despite
repeated requests, Fibery could not release the money whilst the take-over was
in process. Legal proceedings were brought against Patel and Payza because of
this and an ongoing legal battle began.
Another well-documented and highly publicised Payza
scam was almost a carbon copy of the Themko scam. This time, Patrick Masse used
Payza to transfer $979,000 to his Swiss bank account. Having discovered the
cash had not arrived as planned, he was told by Patel that it had been sent to
Mexico to a company called Air Temp. Legal procedures were swiftly started
which saw the seizure of all Patels assets. His houses, cars and bank accounts,
including all accounts controlled by Payza. Firoz Patel realised that this was
a serious matter and offered Masse $300,000 to stop the seizure. Surely this
was an admittance of his involvement of the Payza scam which he claims he knew
nothing about.
Yet another scandal that rocked the Patels’ boat was
due to the death of a teenager from drugs supplied by one of Payza’s clients. A
British MP contacted Firoz Patel and asked him to stop processing money from
the drug dealers: he refused claiming that he doesn’t know the nature of
business conducted by his clients. His ex-employees say that all clients are
categorised and tagged as to the type of business they are in.
Whilst operating in the USA their dealings came to the
attention of the FBI and The Department of Homeland Security. The outcome was
the seizure of every US held account and subsequent freezing of all cash that
they contained. Yet another Payza scam to hit the world headlines!
Private individuals have experienced
loss of capital on a much smaller scale. Monies which are paid into their
accounts disappear into thin air. It is effectively stolen by the Patel
brothers.
The five cases mentioned above are classed
as the largest fraud cases committed through the use of the Payza scam to date.
No doubt more will follow!
