Sunday, January 17, 2010
Maiwolf Management AG in Liquidation
One of the pivotal companies in the former Ludenbach empire, Maiwolf Management AG is finished. In June 2009 the company was one of several raided by the Swiss police, now it has been wound up.
Way back in the 90s Ludenbach established 2 companies to oversee the empire of sham guides and collection companies, these were Maiwolf Holding (in St. Gallen) and Maiwolf Management (in Zug), between them these companies directly controlled the guides Construct Data Verlag, European City Guide and Novachannel AG as well as Debt collector Ovag AG.
In his article of September 2005 where Christian Bütikofer finally named Lüdenbach as the man behind the scams he pointed out that the name Maiwolf was almost certainly a play on Ludenbach's given name of Meinolf.
The names on the company board at the time of Liquidation, Rudolf Keller and Dr. Heinz Mäusli are a throwback to the very early days of the industry, Mäusli had already achieved some notoriety as a lawyer, defending far right extremists and racists and is well known in his native Switzerland; both these men must now be in their twilight years and are unlikely to play any further role.
I encourage you to read Christian's articles to gather a greater understanding of the huge complexity of the international network of companies set up to run these scams which enabled operators to jump jurisdictions whenever the risks became to high. While the names of the guides and the straw men who front them may be different in 2010 the modus operandi remains the same and in the shadows there are still many companies and individuals who operate in secret, ensuring that the scams can cross borders and be put beyond the reach of national law enforcers.
Way back in the 90s Ludenbach established 2 companies to oversee the empire of sham guides and collection companies, these were Maiwolf Holding (in St. Gallen) and Maiwolf Management (in Zug), between them these companies directly controlled the guides Construct Data Verlag, European City Guide and Novachannel AG as well as Debt collector Ovag AG.
In his article of September 2005 where Christian Bütikofer finally named Lüdenbach as the man behind the scams he pointed out that the name Maiwolf was almost certainly a play on Ludenbach's given name of Meinolf.
The names on the company board at the time of Liquidation, Rudolf Keller and Dr. Heinz Mäusli are a throwback to the very early days of the industry, Mäusli had already achieved some notoriety as a lawyer, defending far right extremists and racists and is well known in his native Switzerland; both these men must now be in their twilight years and are unlikely to play any further role.
I encourage you to read Christian's articles to gather a greater understanding of the huge complexity of the international network of companies set up to run these scams which enabled operators to jump jurisdictions whenever the risks became to high. While the names of the guides and the straw men who front them may be different in 2010 the modus operandi remains the same and in the shadows there are still many companies and individuals who operate in secret, ensuring that the scams can cross borders and be put beyond the reach of national law enforcers.
Labels: Christian Bütikofer, Liquidation, Maiwolf Holding, Maiwolf Management, Meinolf Lüdenbach
Monday, August 24, 2009
Novachannel AG in Liquidation
Scam guide operator Novachannel AG has been put into liquidation continuing the process of closing down the Swiss hub of former the Ludenbach guide empire.
Novachannel started its life providing video chat and other services associated with the porn industry but with the liquidation in Lichtenstein of the Tour and Travel Guide which had scammed the tourist industry for many years the need within the guide industry arose for a new operation. Many addresses from the Tour and Travel guide were simply transferred to the new Novachannel database and Tourist Directory was born.
Novachannel was notable for its aggressive litigation against those who dared to criticise the company, litigation that usually went disastrously wrong, When Michael Plumpe, a German citizen described the operation as ‘mafia like’ Novachannel sued, bringing the case in Switzerland, after spending substantial amounts of money they lost with the courts agreeing with Plumpe.
StopECG was also attacked with various ISPs hosting the site receiving lawyers letters, but before litigation could commence the intervention of the British press and MEP Richard Corbett lead to substantial unwanted publicity and the publishing of Ludenbach’s photo in the media.
People who previously worked for Novachannel still work for Eye-net Gmbh in Germany which runs a defamation forum were Novachannel boss Michael Röwe used to post personal attacks. The current fate of Röwe is not known but he is believed to be amongst those arrested in Switzerland.
For victims of the tourist directory it is all over, expect no more demands for money. Another Former Novachannel Guide, Med1web continues to trade from Portugal and appears to be in the process of expanding its operation while a further guide the Yachting Almanac which was displayed on Novachannels website was still born with no contracts or demands ever mailed
Expect a new guide targeting the tourist industry to appear with forms ever-so-slightly different to those used by Novachannel.
If you used to work for Novachannel StopECG would be interested in hearing from you, even if your work was transient or part-time employment such as translation. You can get in contact by mailing stopscamguides@yahoo.co.uk your information will be treated in confidence.
Novachannel started its life providing video chat and other services associated with the porn industry but with the liquidation in Lichtenstein of the Tour and Travel Guide which had scammed the tourist industry for many years the need within the guide industry arose for a new operation. Many addresses from the Tour and Travel guide were simply transferred to the new Novachannel database and Tourist Directory was born.
Novachannel was notable for its aggressive litigation against those who dared to criticise the company, litigation that usually went disastrously wrong, When Michael Plumpe, a German citizen described the operation as ‘mafia like’ Novachannel sued, bringing the case in Switzerland, after spending substantial amounts of money they lost with the courts agreeing with Plumpe.
StopECG was also attacked with various ISPs hosting the site receiving lawyers letters, but before litigation could commence the intervention of the British press and MEP Richard Corbett lead to substantial unwanted publicity and the publishing of Ludenbach’s photo in the media.
People who previously worked for Novachannel still work for Eye-net Gmbh in Germany which runs a defamation forum were Novachannel boss Michael Röwe used to post personal attacks. The current fate of Röwe is not known but he is believed to be amongst those arrested in Switzerland.
For victims of the tourist directory it is all over, expect no more demands for money. Another Former Novachannel Guide, Med1web continues to trade from Portugal and appears to be in the process of expanding its operation while a further guide the Yachting Almanac which was displayed on Novachannels website was still born with no contracts or demands ever mailed
Expect a new guide targeting the tourist industry to appear with forms ever-so-slightly different to those used by Novachannel.
If you used to work for Novachannel StopECG would be interested in hearing from you, even if your work was transient or part-time employment such as translation. You can get in contact by mailing stopscamguides@yahoo.co.uk your information will be treated in confidence.
Labels: Eye-net GmbH, Liquidation, med1web, Michael Plumpe, Michael Röwe, Novachannel AG, Tourist Directory
Tuesday, August 11, 2009
Intercable Verlag AG and Premium recovery AG in Liquidation
Today it has become apparent that the above companies are being wound up, such news is not formally announced but the status of these companies has changed in the Swiss company registers.
You can see the status of Intercable Verlag here and Premium Recovery Here
Although the page is in German you can see the names of the directors scored out and the Liquidators appointed at the end of the list. Some of the names associated with Intercable are men who have been involved with the scam guide industry for many years, but none of them has been around as long as the company itself. Below is a brief obituary for these 2 companies.
Intercable Verlag was the oldest guide in the group, it can be traced back as far as 30 years to the genesis if the scam guide industry in Hamburg. This liquidation will ring loud in the ears of Mienolf Ludenbach for it was back in Hamburg that he worked for Intercable and quite possibly there that he learned the trade he would in time turn into a global industry.
Years later he would buy the company that had once employed him and would move the base of operations to Switzerland. For many years Intercable continued to use the original method of sending salespeople to target companies these salespeople would dupe persons into signing contracts that they believed related to a free listing. The arrival of many former soviet bloc countries in the EU provided the perfect opportunity for Intercable, trick forms were mailed in huge numbers with wording that made it easy for recipients to confuse them with an offer relating to a Swiss fund to assist companies in the new EU member states. Add to that the fact that the forms were mailed in English and many recipients were bamboozled into signing. The Swiss Government was forced to issue at least one warning about this trick.
Not surprisingly when people were invoiced for their listings in Intercable's near worthless directory they refused to pay. Many banded together to expose the scam. In spite of all this Intercable then went to court to enforce the disputed contracts, not as the contracts stated, under Swiss law but in the counties where their victims lived. As the original contracts had been mailed in English Intercable conveniently provided translations to the courts with all the misleading aspects of the contract layout removed, the outcome was that they won some cases and were able to use these to bludgeon other victims into paying. Whereas most of the guides persuade less than 20% of their victims to actually pay Intercable was getting close to 100%.
After StopECG broke the news of the police raids last month it became a major story in the 2 worst affected nations, (the Czech Republic and Sovakia). On some Czech News bulletins it was the top story of the day! Video 1 Video 2
Alas Intercable has sold the disputed contracts and there have been some new attempts to enforce them; more on this tomorrow.
Premium Recovery was a newcomer, Established to take over the business formerly managed by Ovag international AG it appears that the sole purpose of the Premium Recovery was to terrorise victims of several scam guides into paying. Masquerading as a international Debt Collection agency it employed mainly foreign staff to harass guide victims in their own language. Staff were offered substantial bonuses for bringing in disputed debts and a no-holes-barred culture appeared to exist in how far they could go to intimidate people. As far as we know Premium Recovery never took anyone who refused to pay to court they but almost always threatened legal action, often looking up the names of local courthouses on the Internet and then naming them in letters and faxes.
In the pressure cooker atmosphere of Premiums offices it was not unusual for staff to become threatening and abusive on the phone. Few will rue the demise Premium Recovery!
At the same time as Premium Recovery was established a similar Debt collection outfit, Gravis Inkasso was set up in Austria. Gravis has not been subject to the law enforcement activities in Switzerland but it does appear to have ceased all activity related to the scam guides. Indeed at present it appears that the guides of the Ludenbach stable are without a debt collection company, this may not last. Expect the surviving guides get themselves a new company soon, I would predict that any such company will probably appear in a Latin speaking nation such as Spain or Portugal or perhaps South America.
You can see the status of Intercable Verlag here and Premium Recovery Here
Although the page is in German you can see the names of the directors scored out and the Liquidators appointed at the end of the list. Some of the names associated with Intercable are men who have been involved with the scam guide industry for many years, but none of them has been around as long as the company itself. Below is a brief obituary for these 2 companies.
Intercable Verlag was the oldest guide in the group, it can be traced back as far as 30 years to the genesis if the scam guide industry in Hamburg. This liquidation will ring loud in the ears of Mienolf Ludenbach for it was back in Hamburg that he worked for Intercable and quite possibly there that he learned the trade he would in time turn into a global industry.
Years later he would buy the company that had once employed him and would move the base of operations to Switzerland. For many years Intercable continued to use the original method of sending salespeople to target companies these salespeople would dupe persons into signing contracts that they believed related to a free listing. The arrival of many former soviet bloc countries in the EU provided the perfect opportunity for Intercable, trick forms were mailed in huge numbers with wording that made it easy for recipients to confuse them with an offer relating to a Swiss fund to assist companies in the new EU member states. Add to that the fact that the forms were mailed in English and many recipients were bamboozled into signing. The Swiss Government was forced to issue at least one warning about this trick.
Not surprisingly when people were invoiced for their listings in Intercable's near worthless directory they refused to pay. Many banded together to expose the scam. In spite of all this Intercable then went to court to enforce the disputed contracts, not as the contracts stated, under Swiss law but in the counties where their victims lived. As the original contracts had been mailed in English Intercable conveniently provided translations to the courts with all the misleading aspects of the contract layout removed, the outcome was that they won some cases and were able to use these to bludgeon other victims into paying. Whereas most of the guides persuade less than 20% of their victims to actually pay Intercable was getting close to 100%.
After StopECG broke the news of the police raids last month it became a major story in the 2 worst affected nations, (the Czech Republic and Sovakia). On some Czech News bulletins it was the top story of the day! Video 1 Video 2
Alas Intercable has sold the disputed contracts and there have been some new attempts to enforce them; more on this tomorrow.
Premium Recovery was a newcomer, Established to take over the business formerly managed by Ovag international AG it appears that the sole purpose of the Premium Recovery was to terrorise victims of several scam guides into paying. Masquerading as a international Debt Collection agency it employed mainly foreign staff to harass guide victims in their own language. Staff were offered substantial bonuses for bringing in disputed debts and a no-holes-barred culture appeared to exist in how far they could go to intimidate people. As far as we know Premium Recovery never took anyone who refused to pay to court they but almost always threatened legal action, often looking up the names of local courthouses on the Internet and then naming them in letters and faxes.
In the pressure cooker atmosphere of Premiums offices it was not unusual for staff to become threatening and abusive on the phone. Few will rue the demise Premium Recovery!
At the same time as Premium Recovery was established a similar Debt collection outfit, Gravis Inkasso was set up in Austria. Gravis has not been subject to the law enforcement activities in Switzerland but it does appear to have ceased all activity related to the scam guides. Indeed at present it appears that the guides of the Ludenbach stable are without a debt collection company, this may not last. Expect the surviving guides get themselves a new company soon, I would predict that any such company will probably appear in a Latin speaking nation such as Spain or Portugal or perhaps South America.
Labels: Gravis Inkasso, guide scam, intercable Verlag AG, Liquidation, Ovag International, Premium recovery AG
