In April 2024, numerous policeman plundered homes and workplaces in 11 nations and apprehended numerous people connected to JuicyFields, a firm originally based in Berlin.
JuicyFields had actually guaranteed massive go back to those ready to purchase clinical marijuana with its internet site. Almost 200.000 individuals did so and came to be sufferers of a rip-off. Prosecutors approximate the damages to be around EUR645 million ($ 678 million).
DW’s Cannabis Cowboys podcast
A network of investigatory reporters in numerous European nations has currently even more explored the instance. Their searchings for were released by Danish public broadcaster DR, Swedish paper Svenska Dagbladed, Austrian paper Der Standard, and in Germany by the publication Der Spiegel, on-line magazineCorrectiv org, and public television terminal ZDF.
New searchings for increase even more inquiries in JuicyFields instance
The brand-new research study shows up to validate the tale as informed by DW. It additionally includes brand-new searchings for that make the JuicyFields legend also complete stranger than it currently was.
Journalist Kevin Shakir from DR, for instance, procured in contact with the male believed to be the mastermind behind JuicyFields. Sergej B., a Russian nationwide, was apprehended in April 2024 in the Dominican Republic and is readied to be attempted later on in Spain.
According to Shakir’s research study, a network bordering Sergej B. had actually established 2 various other significant fraudulence situations prior to JuicyFields. One included waste recycling, the various other a cryptocurrency. Each time, a great deal of individuals shed a great deal of cash. Shakir informs the tale of Sergej B. in “The Phantom from Russia”
“When you’re able to launch such big projects with that much marketing, when you’re able to disappear again and again from alleged scams, when you’re able to move cryptocurrency in big amounts and sophisticated ways,” Shakir informed DW. “The inquiry stays: is this man [Sergej B.] performing alone or is he component of something larger than himself?
Was the Russian state included?
Gabriela Keller from the investigatory online magazine correctiv.org was interested by the very same inquiry. Many specialists on Russia state rip-offs on the range of JuicyFields need political defense.
Keller stated the examination did not offer 100% evidence that the Russian state was included. But several of her searchings for recommend there goes to the very least a link.
For instance, a Russian participant of JuicyFields’ internal circle, Vitaly M., was signed up in Berlin under the very same address as the main social consular office of the Russian state, an establishment called the Russian House of Science and Culture.
“The fact that he was registered at the Russian House could indicate that he had helpers there,” Keller informed DW. “Because you either need a rental contract or a confirmation by the landlord when you register your address at the registration office.”
The Russian House rejected they had anything to do with Vitaly M. and stated he has to have built documents or offered incorrect details at the residency enrollment workplace.
Back in April, Vitaly M. left apprehension. He currently resides in Russia, where he appears to run a firm that produces drones, Keller informed DW. “The website currently displays the coat of arms of the Russian Ministry of Defense, along with the slogan: ‘Victory will be ours’.” Keller’s complete record can be discovered here (in German)
A Swedish legal representative and his insurance claims
Two investigatory press reporters at Svenska Dagbladet concentrated their examination on a male that was never ever a participant of JuicyFields, yet whose name is carefully connected to the instance: Lars Olofsson, a Swedish legal representative.
After JuicyFields folded up in the summertime of 2022 and countless financiers were left stranded, Olofsson revealed that he might aid sufferers obtain their cash back.
Instead of waiting on the fraudsters behind JuicyFields to be founded guilty, Olofsson revealed he would certainly submit course activity suits versus all those that made the rip-off feasible, consisting of Facebook, where the firm marketed, and financial institutions that handed down financiers’ cash to JuicyFields.
To enter into the course activity matches, ripped off financiers needed to pay a cost toOlofsson Initially, it was EUR100, later on 150. Several thousand individuals subscribed.
Frida Svensson and Erik Wisterberg have actually placed Lars Olofsson under the microscopic lense– with unexpected outcomes. They inform his tale in a four-part podcast called“The Savior”
“[Olofsson] markets himself as a super lawyer with 15 years of experience investigating international fraud and scams. He claims he’s a former Navy Seal and that he worked in the Swedish military intelligence service,” Wisterberg informed DW. “But nothing of this is true.”
“His real background involves serving time in prison for economic crimes. It also involves this year being put on trial again — which his clients didn’t know about at all,” Wisterberg included.
When will district attorneys submit costs?
The Swedish reporters stated they might confirm their claims with records which they had actually faced Olofsson with their searchings for.
DW additionally connected to Olofsson and asked him for remark. He responded yet did not resolve any one of the subjects he was inquired about. Instead, he composed that reporters might not be relied on and stated he obtained numerous brand-new customers after “The Savior” podcast introduced in Sweden.
In the podcast, Olofsson is depicted as a soldier of ton of money wishing to benefit from a rip-off. He generated substantial amounts in sign-up costs from ripped off financiers, while the lawful process he started worrying JuicyFields were declined by Swedish courts.
Public district attorneys in Berlin, Madrid and somewhere else are presently reviewing the product taken throughout the raids in April 2024. They are yet to submit costs.
