Luca K. used to be a singer. But the 41-year-old made a lot of money with the internet broker Fibonetix, where he sang the praises of fantastic Bitcoin profits: in front of customers from Würzburg and Mellrichstadt (district Rhön-Grabfeld), from Lohr (district Main-Spessart) and the district of Schweinfurt – and other regions of Bavaria. Now K. has also sung in court in Bamberg, where investigators from the special unit for Internet crime had brought him to the dock. As a key figure in an international gang of crooks, he has now been behind bars for four years.
Bought a Lamborghini from the loot
At least 8.5 million euros from Bavarian customers disappeared into the pockets of Fibonetix bosses in Ukraine and Israel. K’s boss used the loot to buy around 30 dream cars, including a Lamborghini Aventador and a Rolls Royce. Total value: around one million euros.
But then Bavaria’s Minister of Justice Georg Eisenreich (CSU) sent his specialists for Internet crime around the chief public prosecutor Nino Goldbeck and his Würzburg colleague Markus Küstner to them. Since 2020, the investigators have been tracking down perpetrators in Ukraine, Bulgaria and Israel in international cooperation.
Cheated customers across Lower Franconia
Consumer advocates had warned early on about the risky investment in which the entire capital could be lost – in vain, as calls from cheated customers to this editorial office showed in 2019. “What annoys me the most is my own stupidity,” admitted a victim in Würzburg who claims to have filed a complaint. “First I transferred 250 euros,” explained a customer from Mellrichstadt. His account quickly showed big profits – at least on the screen. “Then the advisor called three or four times a day and urged me to pay more.”
In the hope of bigger profits, he added more: first 500 euros, then one thousand after the other. He could hardly believe what Fibonetix told him in the account statement: His profits supposedly rose faster and faster, up to 120,000 euros. But the money only existed in fairytale accounts, it had long since disappeared into the pockets of the Lamborghini driver and his accomplices.
Another customer said: “After requesting the first withdrawal, I should pay 8,000 euros in fees, then the winnings of almost 80,000 euros should be paid out.” When he demanded at least the amount invested again, “my account was blocked”.
A scam on the rise
In order to gain trust for their scam, the masterminds lied that they had presented their investment idea on the TV show “Lion’s Den,” where wealthy investors are looking for ideas with future potential. They even claimed that Dieter Bohlen invested there.
Bavaria’s Minister of Justice Eisenreich warns: “Cybertrading is on the rise. In Bavaria alone, the damage in this phenomenon was more than 200 million euros between 2018 and 2021.” While Luca K. drove to prison in the police car, Eisenreich posed in front of Lamborghini and Rolls Royce in Munich. With the sale of the vehicles, the cheated customers could see at least part of their money back. The investigative commission (EKO) with the unwieldy name “CFD-Scam” is now called “Soko-Lambo” in the press. But “the other 28 luxury cars are being bombed in Kyiv right now,” one of the investigators told us regretfully.
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