The Tale of Connectum
Latvian native Edgars Lasmanis gained recognition as the founder and CEO of the FCA-regulated payment entity, Connectum Limited, which he initiated in 2014. By 2015, Juri Paal, also identified as Juri Zitin, temporarily owned 50% of the company’s equity. However, he soon departed from his roles as both a shareholder and director. Notably, Zitin had earlier been associated with a major money laundering incident in Estonia in 2013.
In October 2020, Lasmanis relinquished his dominant role, passing the reins to Sokha Heng from Cambodia, a figure with political connections. By January 2021, Lasmanis resigned from his roles at Connectum, following revelations about Connectum‘s central involvement in the money laundering operations of the cybercrime group E&G Bulgaria, spearheaded by Gal Barak, Gery Shalon, and Vladislav Smirnov.
The Lithuanian Entity: Walletto
Established in 2017 in Lithuania, Walletto operates as an e-money institution under the supervision of the Bank of Lithuania. As a VISA Principal Member Issuer and Acquirer, the company offers payment cards and a white-label card payment program.
FinTelegram recently identified Walletto‘s role as a faciliating payment processor for the offshore broker RoboForex. This broker provides its financial services to retail consumers in EEA regions without the necessary regulatory approvals. It’s intriguing that Walletto, being an EU-based e-money institution, seems unaware or overlooks the fact that RoboForex operates without adhering to KYC and mandatory transaction monitoring protocols.
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Should you possess any details regarding Edgars Lasmanis and his ventures, we encourage you to share them through our whistleblower platform, Whistle42.
