We are republishing this report on Payabl and VISA which first appeared in early December 2022. Payabl has complained that we included an image in our report that they shared on Twitter and LinkedIn. To that extent, we are republishing the report without this photo. On Twitter, Payabl is currently facing massive criticism for giving away BMWs to its employees. It perfectly demonstrates that you can earn a lot as a high-risk payment processor in the porn and gambling sector.
In August 2022, Visa and Mastercard suspended card payments for TrafficJunky, the advertisement arm of MindGeek, owner of the website PornHub, after a lawsuit raised questions over whether the payment firms have facilitated monetizing child porn and sex trafficking. A federal judge in California rejected Visa’s motion to dismiss a lawsuit by a woman who alleges the company facilitated the distribution of child porno on PornHub and other websites run by MindGeek.
Visa also received massive fire from critical investors and activists for its hesitant approach to PornHub. In February 2022, billionaire hedge fund manager Bill Ackman claimed that Visa continues to process payments for PornHub’s parent company, despite reportedly knowing it’s “littered” with child porn and holding power to shut it down within hours.
The court case surrounding PornHub will probably run for another year before a final decision is made. Whether Visa will lose and have to pay damages cannot yet be estimated. However, one should think that Visa should develop a certain sensitivity in dealing with payments for porn providers.
In this respect, the cuddling between the Italian Visa managers Luca Airoldi and Gianluca Magistroni and the Payabl. executives Theodoros Hadjistyllis and David Scalabrino in Milan surprised us. The two were Visa‘s guests at Il Salone dei Pagamenti, Italy’s largest payment conference. Payabl. shared the pictures via Twitter and LinkedIn.
It’s not that we’re saying that Payabl or Visa are doing anything illegal. However, we are surprised that Visa is not keeping a low profile in the face of public outrage about its alleged facilitation of child porn and sex trafficking.
The high-risk payment processor Payabl. (formerly PowerCash21 and Inatec) was founded over ten years ago by two former Wirecard top executives, Dietmar Knoechelmann and Ruediger Trautmann, as part of Wirecard‘s “Shadow Organization,” as the German prosecutors call it. Among Payabl’s customers are the operators of large porn sites such as xHamsterLive or StripChat.
According to Similarweb, almost 48% of Payabl‘s referral traffic comes from porn sites. The rest comes from other high-risk industries, such as casinos or investments.
According to the Payabl website, its clients and partners include eToro, Basketnews, ShadowPay, and XM.
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If you have any information about Payabl, its activities, and its partners, please let us know via our whistleblower system, Whistle42.
