PROFILE/ Who is the German "Wolf of Wall Street" who is in Albanian prisons! (Fraud of 123 million euros)

The Prosecutor's Office of Tirana announced that it has seized property worth over 500 thousand euros of a Polish woman, in the wake of the property investigation for the German Stephan Morgenstem , who was arrested in August 2023 in Rinasi, after being wanted by South Korea and other countries on charges of fraud.

A villa on the outskirts of Tirana, in Lundre, as well as two garages has been seized. The value of the Villa is 483,000 euros, while the two garages are worth 27,000 euros.

Who is Stephan Morgenstem? 

In August 2023, Stephan Morgenstern , a German citizen based in Dubai was arrested in Tirana and is now on the verge of extradition to South Korea to face a life sentence.

The 61-year-old, along with his associates, have had their assets and bank accounts seized in the total amount of around 123 million euros, a figure that the investigator claims represents less than a third of the total illegally obtained profits from their fraudulent activities.

In a cooperative effort, Interpol and prosecuting authorities from five countries recently asked UAE officials to freeze his vast assets in Dubai, while also intensifying the search for his accomplice, Roman Ziemian.

Meanwhile, Morgenstern's wife and other associates are under scrutiny for their roles in helping to hide and distribute the stolen funds.

Previously, in December 2022, Morgenstern was arrested in Greece when he tried to catch a flight to Dubai.

After being placed under house arrest by a Greek court, he managed to escape to Albania, where he remained in hiding until his capture at Tirana airport while awaiting the arrival of his wife from Dubai.

South Korean prosecutors have issued a new arrest warrant that expands to include Morgenstern's known associates, his wife and close friends, implicating them in the plot to hide the embezzled assets.

At the time of his arrest in Tirana for "serious fraud", it was discovered that Morgenstern had paid cash for a villa on the outskirts of the city.

The expanded order also calls for the confiscation of real estate, luxury vehicles and other investments financed by the criminal enterprise and has called for travel restrictions by imposing a ban on their passports.

This warrant has been forwarded to Interpol, pending approval and approval.

Recent investigations have uncovered a vast criminal conspiracy aimed at storing and concealing the proceeds of their crimes.

Fraud scheme with the company "Futurenet"

Futurenet was founded in 2014 by Morgenstern and his co-founder Roman Ziemian.

The company claimed it was selling digital advertising packages to investors, which the investors would then sell to others for a profit.

Futurenet also paid high commissions to investors who brought others into the company in a pyramid scheme.

In addition to digital ad packages, Futurenet launched Futurocoin, its digital asset, in 2018, but it collapsed shortly after launch.

It all came crashing down when the Polish authorities declared the company a pyramid scheme.

Korean authorities followed suit, accusing Ziemian and Morgenstern of defrauding nearly 1,000 Korean investors out of millions of dollars. Interpol soon got involved and issued a Red Notice against the two.

Korean police have frozen assets worth KRW 160 billion ($123 million) from the suspects.

"We plan to cooperate with Greece, Italy and Poland to take over the suspects and investigate them according to the priority of the case. We plan to make active efforts so that a large part of the 160 billion in crime proceeds is returned to domestic victims," ??said a South Korean police representative.

The two fraudsters held diplomatic passports from The Gambia, allowing them to travel unsuspectingly to over 80 countries worldwide, further enabling their multi-million dollar fraud.