Maltese company involved in Brazilian online gambling controversy
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A Maltese iGaming certification company with offices in Sliema is part of a group of companies that owns Blaze, a gambling website that is making national headlines in Brazil after being accused of money laundering, scamming its customers and funnelling funds to influencers promoting the online casino.
The EM Group of companies – based in Malta and owned by Dutch businessman George F.J.M. Van Zinnicq Bergmann – includes eMoore N.V., a Curacao company which forms part of the long chain of holding companies and subsidiaries that ultimately own online casino Blaze.
The casino was recently subject to massive controversy in Brazil, where most of its users reside. Investigator and YouTuber Daniel Penin uncovered the elaborate chain of companies obscuring the ultimate owners behind the casino accused of money laundering and scamming customers.
Penin’s video entitled ‘Take from the poor and give to influencers’ showed how Blaze was owned by Profilic Trade N.V., whose registered address was the same as that of Trustmoore Curacao which was ultimately owned by eMoore N.V.
EMoore forms part of the EM Group of companies based in Malta. Trustmoore, whose parent company is based in the Netherlands, also holds subsidiaries Trustmoore Corporate Services and Trustmoore Malta Limited in Malta, which share offices with eMoore Malta and EM Group at Windsor Street, Sliema.
Blaze hired over 400 influencers including internationally recognised names such as football player Neymar Jr to promote its online casino website. The casino offers online blackjack, roulette, slots and sports betting to its over 95% Brazilian audience despite gambling being illegal in Brazil.
It can do so since its parent company, Prolific Trade, is based offshore at the offices of Trustmoore, in Curacao, an independent colony within the Netherlands. The loophole, commonly exploited within the gambling industry, netted Blaze over 40 million players.
A follow-up video from Pelin showed that the Brazilian director of Blaze is Erick Loth Teixeira, whose name was listed as the owner of a geotargeted version of the Blaze website.
A survey carried out by the Organised Crime and Corruption Reporting Project in collaboration with Brazilian site Portal do Bitcoin found that following the allegations and Pelin’s video, Blaze has now accumulated a total of 15 lawsuits in eight Brazilian states.
