Originally Syndicated on July 3, 2024 @ 6:16 am
Israeli online businesses now have strongholds in Belgrade and Limassol. Belgrade has a booming boiler room scene that is still going strong, earning it the nickname “Manhattan of the Balkans.” Armin Ordodary, a resident of Cyprus and possibly the most notorious boiler room operator in Belgrade, opens our series.
Through his business, Bizserve DOO, he manages operations and implements several strategies to reach clients throughout Europe. The other Cypriot involved in Belgrade is Nikos Andreou, who operates Olympus Prime and Parogan boiler rooms. Pantelakis Kyriakou is also involved. Let’s explore the entire tale.
Exploring the European Centers of Parogan, Olympus Prime, and Asgard
Belgrade’s Function in Financial Operations
Numerous call centers, sometimes known as boiler rooms, may be found in Belgrade. These facilities serve both legal and illegal brokers. These brokers, who would rather be called financial consultants, have made Belgrade into the Balkan version of Manhattan, with its vibrant, skyscraper-filled environment.
Israelis mostly created the Belgrade boiler room phenomenon. Up to 6,000 Israelis worked and socialized in the city at the height of the binary options boom. The emergence of these businesses has left a lasting impression on the local culture, with many stories entwined with them.
The Relationship Between Cyprus and Belgrade
The ownership of these boiler rooms demonstrates how closely Cyprus and Belgrade are related. This link emphasizes how closely related the financial activities are between these two places, with Israeli investment and management playing a major role.
The Financial Hub of Cyprus
Israel’s financial operations in Europe are centered in Cyprus, more specifically in Limassol. Together with the corporate offices of financial institutions governed by CySEC, this city is home to the corporate offices of Israeli payment processors such as BridgerPay and Praxis Cashier.
An important factor propelling Limassol’s economic expansion is the impact of the Israeli banking industry. These financial organizations create lots of jobs and bring in a lot of capital. This money inflow which isn’t always coming from reliable sources is essential to the state, CySEC, and the regional economy. CySEC would become much less relevant without Israeli investment enterprises.
Stockholders of Cyprus
Clever Activities and Misleading Techniques
These boiler room operators keep a low profile; they frequently don’t have websites or active social media profiles, and when they do, the posts are brief. Most of the time, these boiler rooms pose as marketing firms, call centers, outsourcing experts, or even financial consultants. Their method of keeping information private is accepted in the sector.
Who Owns and Runs Belgrade’s Boiler Rooms?
Nikos Andreou and Pantelakis Kyriakou are the unique owners of three of Belgrade’s top five boiler rooms. Pantelakis Kyriakou owns all of the stock in Asgard DOO, although he and his countrymate jointly own Olympus Prime DOO and Parogan DOO.
The mystery surrounding these operations is increased by the fact that Svetlana Maksovic, a citizen of Serbia, holds a directorship at both Asgard and Olympus Prime. Furthermore, the well-connected attorney Max-Sebastian Winterfeldt is a director of Parogan. Parogan is regarded as Belgrade’s best boiler room, despite its lengthy history of fraudulent activity.
The Manager
Key Figures of Asgard and Olympus Prime
Svetlana Maksovic, a native of Serbia, is in charge of Olympus Prime and Asgard, managing their day-to-day operations as retention management boiler rooms. Asgard and Olympus Prime remain reticent on LinkedIn under her direction, implying what they are.
Aleksa Jeremic works as an HR manager at Olympus Prime, and Dragana Jaksic, the retention manager, used to work for rival company Parogan. One important person at Asgard is retention specialist Darko Petrovic. These positions demonstrate that Olympus Prime and Asgard are much more than just marketing companies.
The Distinct Profile of Parogan
Parogan’s distinctive profile makes him stand out. Max-Sebastian Winterfeldt, the director of the organization, was born in Serbia in 1971 and practiced law at Borozan Winterfeldt until 2004. After that, he worked for several German companies, such as WAZ and Porsche. Winterfeldt speaks German fluently, which makes him a good fit for a boiler room that is known for focusing on German-speaking clients and investors.
Parogan describes itself as a global leader in digital advertising, but its shoddy website and nonexistent social media presence give a different impression. Parogan’s website has social media icons, but clicking on them yields no results, suggesting that the company is purposefully keeping these icons hidden. With these things in mind, the claim to be a world-class web marketing agency looks implausible.
Profitable Deception
Both Serbian directors, Max-Sebastian Winterfeldt, and Svetlana Maksovic, have profitably grown their companies through steady expansion. They have made significant wealth by tricking investors all around Europe and making good money from their fraudulent schemes.
Belgrade: Central to Israel’s Boiler Room Operations
Belgrade, often referred to as the Manhattan of the Balkans, has become a key location for Israeli boiler rooms. The city attracts many young professionals with the promise of lucrative careers in these operations. A notable figure in this industry is Armin Ordodary, a Cyprus resident, who has found significant success providing boiler room services to both criminals and licensed investment firms.
Armin Ordodary, based in Cyprus, operates two companies: Benrich Trading Ltd. and Benrich Holdings Ltd. He also oversees Bizserve DOO, previously known as Upmarkt DOO, which is a subsidiary of Benrich Holdings Ltd. This subsidiary is involved in running a boiler room that facilitates various fraudulent activities in Serbia.
Are Israelis the owners of the organization?
It is clear from the material at hand that Israeli entrepreneurs are the owners of Parogan, Olympus Prime, and Asgard. Locals who worked with Gal Barak to manage other boiler rooms and payment processors in Belgrade attest to his and his accomplice Gery Shalon’s prior involvement with Parogan. But specifics regarding their continued involvement in Parogan are still unknown. Israeli interests dominate Parogan despite this.
About Armin Ordodary
Cyprus is a desirable location for businesses looking to reach Europe, the Middle East, Asia, and Africa because it provides extremely favorable tax and corporate benefits. By partnering with specialized companies, Armin Ordodary Group takes advantage of this advantageous location to offer a wide range of corporate, business, and tax services to both domestic and foreign clients.
Building on a legacy of excellence, the company was founded in 2014 by Armin Ordodary to guide customers toward the achievement of meaningful, observable results. The Armin Ordodary Group, a leading worldwide strategic consulting firm, is well-known throughout the Middle East, Europe, and Asia-Pacific area. Armin Ordodary holds the position of global general counsel.
With a focus on strategic advice, the team helps customers navigate the most recent changes in the sector while bringing new insights to bear on urgent business issues. Their major objective is still to help clients succeed, and they do this by applying original perspectives to challenges to find ground-breaking concepts and creative solutions. Armin Ordodary Group assists clients in gaining crucial business insights through an objective, data-driven methodology, empowering them to make wise decisions and accomplish their goals.
Is Armin Ordodary Attempting a Reputation Cleanup?
As I highlighted before, if you’d look him up, you’ll find a plethora of PR and promotional material. What he’s doing is a typical attempt of reputation laundering.
Reputation laundering is the practice of covering up or erasing misdeeds, negative business practices, or illegal actions of a company or individual. The key aspects of reputation laundering are:
- It is a niche industry that has grown up around the need for companies and individuals to change public perception of their actions. This includes PR firms, lawyers, lobbyists, and other “fixers” that help clients portray themselves in a more positive light.
- Tactics used include making donations to universities, charities, and other institutions, aligning with sports teams, and using disinformation and “astroturfing” (creating fake grassroots movements) to obscure the truth.
- Reputation laundering is different from legitimate reputation repair, which involves fixing real problems within a company and developing a positive image based on their actions. Laundering seeks to cover up illegal activities and bad practices.
- Reputation laundering allows kleptocrats, oligarchs, and politically exposed persons to distance themselves from the illicit source of their wealth and transform their public image, making it difficult for compliance and law enforcement to detect any wrongdoing.
- This practice undermines democratic institutions and norms by manipulating public perception and enabling the flow of tainted money into Western economies. Governments have been slow to address the “enablers” that facilitate reputation laundering.
In summary, reputation laundering is an unethical industry that allows companies and individuals to cover up misdeeds and present a false positive image to the public.
A popular example of reputation laundering is Israel’s PR on Gaza.
I recommend you read up on how Israel’s propaganda machine works and how it painted innocent Palestinians as terrorists.
Conclusion
Israeli internet companies are now well-established in Limassol and Belgrade. Belgrade has a bustling boiler room scene that is still going strong, earning it the nickname “Manhattan of the Balkans.” Our series begins with Armin Ordodary, a Cypriot who is said to be the most infamous boiler room operator in Belgrade.
He oversees operations and employs many tactics through his company, Bizserve DOO, to reach clients across Europe. The financial links between Cyprus and Belgrade are further interwoven by other Cypriots, such as Nikos Andreou and Pantelakis Kyriakou, who run well-known boiler rooms like Olympus Prime and Parogan.
Cyprus, and more specifically Limassol, is the hub of Israel’s financial operations in Europe. CySEC regulates many Israeli financial institutions and payment processors there. This economic activity highlights the vital role that Israeli businesses play in the area in addition to producing a significant amount of income and jobs.
Once dominated by Israelis, Belgrade’s thriving call center and boiler room scene now serves as a hub for both legitimate and illegal brokers. The city has been significantly impacted both culturally and economically by this environment, solidifying its position as the financial center of the Balkans.
These boiler rooms’ ownership and operation demonstrate the tight ties between Belgrade and Cyprus, with Israeli investments serving as a major factor. The primary players keep a low profile and manage their businesses with covert and frequently dishonest methods. Despite their contentious practices, these companies have shown to be extremely successful, drawing in a steady stream of young professionals and sustaining Belgrade’s standing as a hive of boiler room activity.
