Scam payments lead to an Australian business and its Israeli owner
An Australian e-learning website was used as a front for scammers selling fraudulent investments, an ABC investigation reveals.
Rodger, an Australian businessman, had $125,000 invested in a fraudulent platform called The FBTC. When he encountered issues withdrawing his funds, a broker claiming to be a financial professional in Switzerland pressured him to switch banks. Rodger's account was frozen, and he was required to pay fees for liquidity issues. Eventually, he became desperate, telling the scammer he couldn't afford to buy Christmas presents for his family.
The scam group, known as the Sapphire Network, operates a decentralized network involving dozens of companies and hundreds of people, headquartered in Israel. Over 4,000 Australians have been targeted, with the network allegedly defrauding its victims of hundreds of millions of dollars. Trigo XO, a company based in Melbourne, received payments from scam victims.
In 2024, Rodger fell victim to the Sapphire Network, and two years later, another Australian man named Toby also fell for the same scam. Toby invested over $500,000 through a fraudulent news article and was subjected to psychological pressure tactics. Both Rodger and Toby were manipulated into providing payments to Trigo XO, which was later found to be part of the Sapphire Network.
Written by urgent.news from ABC News AU's reporting — not their text. Machine-written — may contain errors; check the original before relying on it.
