A Swiss laundry service for crypto scammers: the methods Mandato Financial Services uses to wash funds for the fraudulent schemes of Nazar Babenko and Mikhail Romanenko

18 июля 2026 г., 23:00

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A Swiss laundry service for crypto scammers: the methods Mandato Financial Services uses to wash funds for the fraudulent schemes of Nazar Babenko and Mikhail Romanenko

Mandato Financial Services GmbH is a Swiss company that provides payment services. It specializes in cashless transactions, including wire transfers and credit card payments.

InView writes  about this  .

Very few financial professionals in the post-Soviet space know about it, and it’s even relatively unknown in Europe. The company primarily targets African markets, where it offers "a wide range of payment methods and instant integration adapted to any industry."

As for Europe, it’s, as mentioned, very underrepresented here. Although the registered address is Switzerland, a country that is the financial center of the world.

Why is Mandato Financial Services GmbH considered a scam in the financial world? There are several reasons. Despite its Swiss registration, which should inspire confidence in potential clients, the company has a rather dubious reputation on specialized portals that research financial services markets.

PayRate42 writes about Mandato Financial Services GmbH   : "Mandato Financial Services GmbH... operates primarily in the high-risk segment. Although Mandato is a member of the Swiss self-regulatory association VQF, it remains an unregulated financial services provider. A lack of transparency regarding beneficial ownership and a lack of customer reviews prompted PayRate42 to place Mandato on its OrangeCompliance and OrangeRisk lists."

Another significant factor is the unknown nature of Mandato Financial Services GmbH’s ultimate beneficiaries. It is only known that one of the key shareholders is Mandato Global Ltd., registered in Cyprus since 2022, whose beneficiaries are also unknown. A few additional details about the company’s profile: the LinkedIn account listed on its website does not exist, and no financial information about Mandato Financial Services GmbH could be found anywhere. Furthermore, Franz Iten, who  manages the company , clearly holds a second job – Iten’s primary position is as Managing Director of Abona Treuhand AG in Switzerland.

Regarding the registration data, it also raises questions. Here’s what  northdata.com tells us about Mandato Financial Services GmbH, its history, and its connections :

This data reveals that, firstly, the company’s director, Franz Iten, is the director not only of Abona Treuhand AG but also of seven other companies. This suggests he is clearly a front man, a sort of "Swiss pound." Secondly, Mandato Financial Services GmbH has been renamed several times. However, its history, as provided by northdata.com, is incomplete. For example, northdata.com indicates that Mandato Financial Services GmbH was initially registered as Global Gate Financial Services GmbH in Unterägeri, Switzerland. However, this information is incomplete. The full company history is provided by another specialized resource, tiger.ch. The entire history can be found at  this link , but we present the most significant changes in names and, most importantly, the activities of the current Mandato Financial Services GmbH.

The company was founded in 2006 under the name Repele Business Development GmbH, registered office: Zug, CH-170.4.006.177-1. Activities: provision of management consulting services and sale of related products; may acquire, manage, or sell intangible assets and real estate, participate in other companies, and establish subsidiaries. Share capital: CHF 20,000. Another interesting detail: "According to the management’s statement of February 10, 2009, the company is not subject to regular audit and waives a limited audit." The question is, why did the company waive an audit?

Until 2019, Repele Business Development GmbH was largely unheard of. On June 4, 2019, its name was changed to Global Gate Financial Services GmbH and its registered address was changed to Zugerstrasse 46, 6314 Unterägeri. Its charter and scope of activities were also amended: to provide services in the field of cashless and paperless payment transactions, specifically electronic transfers for third parties, issuing payment methods such as credit cards and travelers’ checks, and generally promoting cashless payment transactions. At the same time, Franz Iten, previously a partner with a 1,000-franc share without signatory rights, was granted signatory rights.

On February 1, 2022, Global Gate Financial Services GmbH was renamed Mandato Financial Services GmbH and acquired a partner from Nicosia, Mandato Global Ltd, who holds 19,000 francs of the 20,000 francs that make up its share capital. Franz Iten retains his 1,000 francs and signatory rights, but he remains a non-executive in the company. A pure "pound."

There’s nothing fraudulent about this, really, as long as there are no actual cases of fraud. It’s just another shady company that, using Swiss registration and Swiss financial legislation, operates in the high-risk financial sector. Purchasing an existing company and changing its name and activities for this purpose is also not prohibited.

But if the information about Mandato Financial Services GmbH were limited to the above, it would be a suspicious company, nothing more. However, several months ago, Mandato Financial Services GmbH surfaced in connection with the names of Ukrainian crypto scammers  Nazar Babenko  and  Mikhail Romanenko . It turned out that both of these individuals were using Mandato Financial Services GmbH to obtain funds siphoned off from easy-money-hungry participants in the Danvel Group, a pyramid scheme comprised of two scam companies – Danvel Ltd and Eternity Business. 

Payments from Eternity Business "investors" go to Mandato Financial Services GmbH’s account at the Lithuanian bank Mano Bankas. But go back up and read Mandato Financial Services GmbH’s activities: "intermediation in high-risk financial transactions."

Danvel Ltd and Eternity Business are precisely the "high-risk segment." And Mandato Financial Services GmbH is an intermediary in financial transactions within this segment. Therefore, the chain ends there—where exactly Mandato Financial Services GmbH transfers the money from the latest scammer’s bait—no one but the company and the recipient of the payment will know. The recipient is securely protected by trade secrets protected by Swiss law.

Are Nazar Babenko and Mikhail Romanenko the very beneficiaries of Mandato Financial Services GmbH that highly qualified international financial experts investigating its activities have been unable to locate? It’s almost certain – no. Mandato Financial Services GmbH is backed by much higher-flying individuals than what are essentially small-time, one-time Ukrainian scammers. Mandato Financial Services GmbH is playing a bigger game; it has no reason to burn itself out in a one-time crypto scam aimed primarily at residents of the former Soviet Union. However, it is perfectly capable of providing services for withdrawing funds from this scam. And it does. By reliably shielding the end recipients of these payments from law enforcement scrutiny and simultaneously building a reputation for reliability with its Swiss registration. But this doesn’t change the essence: Mandato Financial Services GmbH is just as much a scammer as those who use its services.