Australian couple loses a fortune in scam linked to gun-loving man in Ukraine

An Australian couple have lost their life savings in a scam linked to a gun-toting man in Ukraine. This is how they fell into an innocent-looking trap that has cost them a fortune.

Investigators have traced almost $1.6m scammed from a retired Melbourne couple through a network of cryptocurrency exchanges to an alleged fraud mastermind in Ukraine.

In a case that reveals the inner workings of how ordinary Australians are fleeced by offshore criminal syndicates, private detective Ken Gamble, of IFW Worldwide, has traced the money back through a series of cryptocurrency wallets and to a group he believes is ultimately run by David Todua.

The AK-47-toting Mr Todua has been publicly identified as being behind a large European scam call centre operation called Milton Group but has denied any links with the company.

David Todua denies being the "father" of scam syndicate Milton Group. Picture: Instagram

David Todua holds a gun. Picture: Instagram

Milton Group’s chief executive was Jacob Keselman, a travel and fast-car loving Russian-speaker who at a party for the group lauded Mr Todua as the “father” of the operation.

Mr Gamble has been investigating what happened to money poured into crypto exchange Binance by a group called Brown Finance, also known as B-Finance, from February 2022 onwards.

The couple were seduced into handing over their money on the promise it would be invested in orthodox financial products including bets on the price of gold.

Jacob Keselman, chief executive of Milton Group, outside the Eiffel Tower in a picture from his Instagram feed.

Urged on by the slick team at Brown Finance, they poured ever-increasing amounts into the account before they realised it was a scam nine months later.

Theirs is one several cases where lawyer Michael Hazell, of RBK Legal Advisory, with the assistance of Mr Gamble’s detective agency, are trying to find where money defrauded from ordinary Australians has gone – and get it back.

It’s a complex operation that involves detective work tracking down the people behind alleged scams and the crypto exchanges where they try to hide their ill-gotten gains plus legal action pursuing the exchanges for details of clients Mr Hazell and Mr Gamble believe might ultimately now hold money tricked from victims.

Mr Hazell said other cases he was pursuing included two people defrauded of more than $500,000 in a bond scam where the villains impersonated investment bank UBS and another where four people have lost a combined $500,000 to a foreign exchange firm that offered high returns and claimed to be licensed in Australia.

He said fraud had exploded but people were reluctant to come forward.

“Clients generally feel humiliated and embarrassed about these sorts of things,” he said.

Lawyer for fraud victims Michael Hazell. Picture: David Smith

According to Mr Gamble, after the couple’s money landed at Binance it was quickly tumbled through a series of different exchanges.

He and his team have identified nine wallets at six different crypto exchanges that received the couple’s money.

In addition to the Binance account, the money also travelled through wallets held by exchanges Huobi Global, KuCoin, Kyrrex and HitBTC.com.

Meanwhile, Mr Hazell has taken Federal Court action to force Binance to hand over details – including ID documents and home addresses – of the client or clients behind four different crypto wallets through which the couple’s money allegedly flowed.

It is understood Binance is unlikely to oppose the move.

Mr Gamble said the Brown Finance scam had “all the characteristics and hallmarks of the Milton Group”, one of a number of scam syndicates set up by organised crime groups after they were kicked out of Israel five years ago.

“For me, it’s almost certain that they’ve been built and managed by Israeli criminals, but the ultimate owner of it is David Todua,” he said.

He said that before the war in Ukraine, Mr Todua would arrive at Milton’s headquarters in Kyiv flanked by guards with AK-47s.

Mr Todua’s Instagram account, which is now shut down, also featured images of an AK-47, as well as of him toting a pistol in front of a table full of firearms.

He did not respond to questions but has previously vehemently denied being the owner or operator of Milton Group, which appears to have stopped operating.

“I am neither a secret owner nor the founder of Milton Group,” he said in 2020, when the company’s operations were exposed as part of a global investigation.

“I do not hold any formal or informal position in the mentioned company.”

A Binace spokesperson said the company does not “discuss ongoing cases as a matter of policy”.

Originally published as Australian couple loses a fortune in scam linked to gun-loving man in Ukraine