The Steinkeller Brothers: The Fraudsters? (2024)

As a consequence of their involvement in the well-known One Coin Ponzi Scheme, which resulted in the accumulation of $4 billion in funds, the Steinkeller Brothers are a family of merchants who came to prominence. Among the individuals who made the most money from the fraud were Stephan, Aron, and Christian Steinkeller. The allegations that they were involved with One Coin led to their indictment in Italy in the year 2021. I have other facts that I can provide on their scam. Let us thus proceed with the investigation of other information.  

Steinkellar Brothers: One Coin Ponzi Scheme

There have been fourteen individuals accused by the Italian Guardia di Finanza of marketing the One Coin Ponzi scam on the Internet. It was at the city of Bolzano, which is located in the South Tyrol area of Italy, that the indictments were presented. To our regret, the names of the persons who have been accused have not been disclosed to the general public.

What I do know is that the suspects have been accused of committing crimes such as aggravated fraud, unlawful distribution, marketing, and pyramid selling of electronic money, illegal savings collection, and financial crime, all of which have been compounded by the fact that they are global.

About 3,700 victims of the OneCoin cryptocurrency attack in South Tyrol have been identified by the Italian authorities. These victims together lost more than 5 million euros.

I am also aware that the infamous Steinkeller brothers, who “assisted” OneCoin creator Ruja Ignatova, were the primary focus of the investigation that was conducted by the Guardia di Finanza.

The Steinkeller brothers, Christian, Aron, and Stephan, ceased using OneCoin not long after the cryptocurrency’s demise at the beginning of 2017.

Under their leadership, the brothers managed the “One DreamTeam” Onecoin network of promoters, which at the time generated around $2.5 million in monthly revenue.

Late in 2019, the Steinkellers made their comeback with Planet Impact, a multi-level marketing opportunity that had an emphasis on the environment. 

At the end of 2019, the Steinkeller brothers made a reappearance with their opportunity known as Planet Impact, which had an environmental focus. The official Facebook page for Planet Impact was taken down in April 2020, even though the website for the organization is still operational.

Following their departure from OneCoin, the Steinkeller Brothers eventually made their way to Dubai, where they had been residing. There does not seem to be any kind of extradition arrangement between Italy and Dubai today.

All of these and other causes contribute to Dubai’s status as the worldwide center for multi-level marketing (MLM) fraud. For multi-level marketing (MLM) scammers who are trying to avoid the authorities, the city acts as a haven.

The Italian government began to take action against OneCoin before the end of 2016. Almost immediately before the new year, the AGCM issued an order that essentially made it illegal to promote OneCoin in Italy.

The cryptocurrency known as OneCoin was referred to be a pyramid scam and was completely banned in Italy in February of 2017. After three months, the Steinkeller brothers, who were the leaders of the major Italian OneCoin organization, called it quits and departed the scam.

August in 2017, the AGCM levied a fine of 2.5 million euros on OneCoin for violating the ban.

As a result of Stefan Liback’s later exploitation of the Steinkeller brothers’ downline, Luca Miatton became the head of OneCoin in Italy after the Steinkeller brothers had their OneCoin period.

It is not uncommon for Miatton to engage in dishonesty while marketing OneCoin.

During April in the year 2020, Miatton was found to be a liar about a potential partnership between OneCoin and Soldo for prepaid MasterCards.

In May 2021, Miatton was once again brought to light for lying about the partnership that existed between OneCoin and the government of Romania. 

The Steinkellar Brothers: Dubious Methods and Associations with the Eliminalia 

It has been determined that Aron, Stephan, and Christian Steinkeller are the individuals who are customers of Eliminalia. Businessmen make up the Steinkeller family, which includes the brothers.

There is a negative reputation for Eliminalia since it is known to use a questionable way to “erase” the history of its customers. Forbidden Stories was able to get a document that had been leaked, and it indicated that the Steinkellers were consumers of Eliminalia.

The fact that the Steinkeller Brothers or Eliminalia did not resort to murdering or torturing their victims is a fortunate development. The media coverage of their illegal operations was instead targeted via the use of threats and manipulation against the media. The Steinkeller brothers were among the recipients of the highest earnings from the well-known One Coin Ponzi Scheme, which resulted in a total of $4 billion.

When it came to spreading the word about the hoax, the Steinkeller brothers did it using their “One Dream Team” logo. According to rumors in the media, the Steinkeller brothers were charged with One Coin-related offenses in Italy in the year 2021. In the same year, Eliminalia was given a sum of money equal to $38,000 by a bogus company that was operating on behalf of the Steinkellers.

As stated in Forbidden Story, Eliminalia makes use of the following tactics within its operations:

• Any misuse of the General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR), impersonating representatives of the European Union and filing bogus DMCA claims (which were backed by made-up, outdated publications)

According to Forbidden Stories, Eliminia effectively removed articles from “hundreds of journalists” between the years 2015 and 2021. This assertion is based on the data that they have studied before.

Even though Eliminalia claims that its services assist clients with the “right to be forgotten” in removing “unwanted and inaccurate information,” approximately 50,000 internal business data that were disclosed to Forbidden Stories infringe against this declaration.

During his time working with dishonest politicians, fraudsters, spyware suppliers, torturers, convicted criminals, and other individuals involved in the worldwide underworld, Eliminalia hid information that was of public interest. The records give evidence of this.

This leak, which includes private emails, client names, contracts, and other legal documents, gives a more comprehensive understanding of the company’s activities than previous revelations, the most notable of which was published by Rest of the World. Previous leaks disclosed the identities of some of Eliminalia’s customers.

Organizations such as Eliminalia can continue operating in the manner in which they do so because of the ineffectual DMCA legislation and the well-intended but foolish European GDPR rules.

Several companies, like Eliminalia, realized that data protection legislation may be used as a tool to remove material from the internet. The General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) and the Digital Millennium Copyright Act (DMCA) are two regulations that are easily violated.

For those of you who are concerned about whether or not the Steinkeller Brothers and Eliminalia were the focus of BehindMLM, I do recall getting some GDPR nonsense regarding the Steinkeller Brothers.

Even though they have, for the most part, been eliminated, con artists in Europe continue to use the method on occasion. Because I only save communication that is sent by attorneys, if what I remember was sent by Eliminalia, it would have been sufficiently general for me to just react to it and eventually delete it.

Upon searching the Lumen Database, I was able to locate a notification that was dated July 2021. It is my opinion that this is most likely the work of Eliminalia, who issued a phony DMCA complaint from “Global News” in response to BehindMLM’s first reporting on the Steinkeller Brothers abandoning OneCoin. 

The Steinkeller Brothers: Synopsis of Eliminalia, the business that supplies their fraudulent 

Eliminalia, which is located in Barcelona, has been working in the business of reputation washing for 10 years. From a wood-paneled working-together facility in the well-known Portal de l’Angel retail area, which it shares with twenty other tenants, the company has grown into a key player in the global market for recruiting misinformation. This facility is located in the heart of the shopping district.

The French non-governmental organization Forbidden Stories was given access to around 50,000 documents that were issued by the reputation management company Eliminalia in conjunction with a large number of media partners. More than one hundred journalists worked together as part of the Story Killers initiative to investigate the industry of providing misinformation to individuals for a fee.

What is the mechanism of the Eliminalia leak? 

The information consists of detailed details regarding Eliminalia’s customers in fifty various countries all over the globe. These details include the customers’ names, the agreements they have signed, and other papers that are legally binding.

It was the first time that reporters were granted permission to get access to the activities of one of the most major “black hat” (hacker) reputation management organizations in the whole globe.

A firm in Spain that specializes in reputation management employs hacking methods that let criminals all around the globe erase the past.

Narcotics trafficking convictions were held against two of them. Prostitution revenues were allegedly laundered by one individual, according to the police. The United States government was supplied with equipment by another entity. Three more individuals have been charged with assisting in the facilitation of a Bitcoin scam that resulted in massive losses for investors.

Eliminalia is an internet reputation management company that promises to “erase your past.” These are just a handful of the more than 1,400 customers who have worked with the company. Among them are scores of individuals who have been convicted of a crime or are suspected of being among the offenders.

Chief Executive of the Eliminalia: Diego “Didac” Giménez Sánchez

Diego “Didac” Giménez Sánchez, a thirty-year-old Spanish businessman who is now thought to be living in Georgia, is the one who is responsible for Eliminalia, as stated on the official website of the firm. It is said that Sánchez is in control of a huge network of enterprises, one of which is a Ukrainian surrogacy service that is now under investigation for its involvement in the trafficking of babies.

On the other hand, it seems that he built this network with Jose Maria Hill Prados, a guy who was convicted of sexually abusing him when he was a child. Because Hill Prados’s name is not included in Eliminalia’s records, Spanish investigators think that he may also be responsible for overseeing the reputation manager.

Reporters were able to trace Eliminalia’s huge digital influence network as a result of the hundreds of papers that were leaked. Forbidden Stories, a French non-profit organization, was able to obtain and share these data with OCCRP and numerous partners. The documents add to the discoveries that were discovered previously and provide a fresh perspective on the variety of misleading techniques that the company uses to suppress the criticism of its customers.

In the documents, it is said that Eliminalia, which changed its name to iData Protection S.L. at the end of December, intimidated journalists by threatening them with copyright and privacy restrictions, manipulated search engines into obscuring information, and manufactured fake news. Although it has unlawful customers, the organization has begun new commercial operations in many different countries.

Experts believe that Eliminalia is a component of a growing misinformation business that assists bad actors, such as criminals and kleptocrats, in hiding their dubious pasts. Eliminalia serves as a support system for these individuals.

Tena Prelec, a research fellow at Oxford University who specializes in transnational kleptocracy, observed that the existing system of money laundering and reputation laundering, as well as daily kleptocracy, is dependent on individuals who work as professional intermediates across international borders.

In this process of repurposing nasty persons, corporations, and countries as globally acclaimed entrepreneurs and charitable cosmopolitans, they have a whole range of professional service sectors that assist in this repurposing. Some examples of these industries are public relations agents, lobbyists, and attorneys.

In response to questions about this initiative, the legal counsel for Eliminalia refused to respond, stating that a significant number of the requests concerned customer information that was considered secret by the respective firm. An accusation of prejudice was made against the media.

They asserted that the great majority of the questions, both in terms of their substance and their direction, “show a partial and disrespectful approach.”

Sanchez is a self-made businessman who founded his first reputation management agency in Spain when he was just 20 years old. He identifies himself as a self-made businessman. Over the subsequent years, he founded several new businesses before shifting his headquarters to Ukraine. There, he engaged writers to generate reviews and bogus legal notices for the media.

Sánchez was involved in several different business ventures, one of which being Subrogalia, a surrogacy firm that paired Spanish parents with Ukrainian women who could carry their children.

Although he is the public face of the corporation, documents that were found by OCCRP indicate that Hill Prados, who was imprisoned in Spain for sexually assaulting Sanchez when he was a child, was the owner of the Ukrainian enterprise that the company controlled.

According to two Spanish law enforcement officials in charge of cyber threats who begged not to be named because they were not allowed to talk to the media, Hill Prados is supposedly the receiver of Eliminalia. These authorities spoke to the media on the condition that they remain anonymous.

On the other hand, OCCRP was unable to independently verify the allegation since they provided a hazy explanation of the reasons for their support.

There are at least 54 companies that have been linked to Hill Prados and Sánchez throughout the last 10 years in nine different countries, and Eliminalia is a part of this network. Regarding this report, they choose not to provide any kind of response.

In light of this, Eliminalia was also engaged to represent well-known OneCoin resellers, which was a fraudulent cryptocurrency enterprise that scammed investors out of billions of dollars. Three brothers named Aron, Christian, and Stephan Steinkeller are now being prosecuted in Italy for allegedly making millions of euros from the scheme. They are accused of having been involved in the scheme. During the year 2021, a company made a payment to Eliminalia of 38,000 euros. Despite being asked for their thoughts, the Steinkeller brothers did not respond to the request.

Conclusion

Investigating the Steinkeller Brothers and the One Coin Ponzi Scheme and Eliminalia shows dishonesty, manipulation, and fraud. Steinkeller Brothers and others profited from the One Coin fraud, ripping off thousands of victims. Their promotion and profit from the plan resulted in Italian charges.

After hiring Eliminalia, a questionable reputation management organization, they further ruin their reputation. Suppressing unfavorable information and altering web material presents ethical and legal issues for Eliminalia.

Eliminalia’s operations and affiliations to criminals are revealed by the leaked papers. Diego “Didac” Giménez Sánchez, Eliminalia’s CEO, and Jose Maria Hill Prados, his putative collaborator, are accused of reputation laundering for problematic clientele.

In today’s linked world, financial fraud and disinformation are everywhere, as shown by the Steinkeller Brothers’ One Coin Ponzi Scheme and Eliminalia connections. The lawsuits and Eliminalia’s methods highlight the significance of openness, responsibility, and ethics in business and internet activity.