A German court has initiated a trial against the former CEO of the Israeli company Airsoft for providing its brokerage technology to scammers. According to prosecutors, the financial losses suffered by victims totalled more than 94 million euros.
The Trial of a Tech Provider
As reported by OCCRP, the CEO of the tech provider, who was in charge from March 2015 until at least the end of June 2021, has been charged with four counts of commercial and organised fraud.
Notably, Airsoft itself did not scam anyone, but it allegedly provided technology tools to scammers.
In 2023, FinanceMagnates.com reported raids on the Tel Aviv office of Airsoft by Israeli authorities over the company’s links to forex fraud.
The indictment filed by the German authorities added that the former CEO “knowingly and willingly” provided the company’s “brokerage all-in-one solution” software to criminal groups across multiple countries, which was “central to the fraud”.
According to the indictment, several fake trading platforms, including Huludox, Fibonetix, Nobeltrade, Tradecapital, and Forbslab, used Airsoft’s technology. The German court had already convicted the leaders of those platforms last year, who ran scams through call centres in several countries, including Bulgaria, Serbia, Ukraine, Georgia, Israel, and Kosovo.
Read more: Belgian Watchdog Battles a New Breed of “Boiler-Room” Scam Wrapped in Corporate Branding
Who Is Really Responsible?
The OCCRP report also mentioned that the former Airsoft CEO “partially admitted” the facts of the case but “largely denied” the allegations of criminal wrongdoing.
As the company allegedly charged scammers as part of its revenue, a standard revenue-sharing business model in the brokerage industry, it became directly complicit in the fraudulent activities.
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The defendant’s lawyers, however, are questioning the legal basis of the case.
“The central question before the court is at what point, and under what legal conditions, a software provider may be held criminally liable for the misuse of its product by third parties,” the lawyers of the defendant told the US-based non-governmental organisation that supports investigative journalism.
The indictment, on the other hand, alleges that “in some cases — depending on the respective authorisations — the involvement of Airsoft employees was required, which did indeed occur.”
