The Israeli Scam Networks Hiding Behind a Fake Island Regulator

Few people have heard of the island of Anjouan. Fewer still could locate it on a map. Yet this tiny island in the Indian Ocean has become a crucial node in one of the least discussed aspects of Jewish perfidy abroad. Anjouan is one of 3 semi-autonomous islands in the Union of Comoros, a small nation wedged between Madagascar and the African mainland. For decades, Anjouan has marketed itself as an offshore financial jurisdiction, offering banking, insurance, gambling, and cryptocurrency licenses through the Anjouan Offshore Finance Authority.

The problem is that this “regulator” has been officially stripped of any recognized legitimacy by the Comoros central government—banking laws passed in 2013 and 2015 formally stripped AOFA of all regulatory authority. The Comoros Central Bank has stated publicly that AOFA and its affiliated bodies have “no physical or legal existence in the territory of the Union of the Comoros” and “operate online via websites to scam people.” Yet Anjouan Licensing Services Inc., which emerged in 2023 as the latest successor entity, claims to have issued more than 1,300 gambling licenses at roughly €17,000 each—potentially generating over €20 million annually—with no publicly disclosed ownership or governance structure.

The International Chamber of Commerce’s Financial Investigation Bureau has flagged Anjouan banking as a serious risk, with FIB Assistant Director Jon Merrett stating: “A number of people on Anjouan claim to have the authority to issue bank licences, but their credibility remains heavily suspect.” This regulatory vacuum has proven irresistible to Israeli-based criminal networks. The most documented connection between Israeli-linked companies and Anjouan involves the large-scale “Scam Empire” investment fraud network, exposed by OCCRP, Swedish Television, and more than 30 media partners in early 2025. Based on 1.9 terabytes of leaked internal data, the investigation found 2 groups of scam call centers that defrauded at least 32,000 victims of approximately $275 million between 2021 and 2024.

The Israeli and European operation—headquartered in the 42-story Sapphire Tower in Ramat Gan, Israel—ran call centers operating from Tel Aviv and Cyprus and generated at least $247 million from 27,000 victims across 30 countries. The central management team was based in Tel Aviv. When the scam platforms needed fake “regulatory legitimacy,” they used fraudulent licenses supposedly issued by the “Mwali International Services Authority”—a fictitious body operating in the name of the island of Moheli—or the related “Anjouan Offshore Financial Authority.” At least 4 of the 81 platforms in the network used these fake Comoros licenses as cover. Notably, after OCCRP’s investigation began, 3 platforms that had previously claimed legitimate South African licenses quietly switched to claiming regulation by the same 2 fictitious Comoros authorities instead. The Comoros Central Bank has confirmed that these bodies “are not official bodies and do not have any legitimacy to grant official licenses.”

In February 2026, a German court sentenced Mikheil Biniashvili, a Georgian-Israeli dual citizen, for running a separate scam call-center operation based in Albania—a case with documented links to the same software infrastructure used in the Scam Empire investigation. The exploitation of Anjouan’s offshore branding by Israel-connected operators fits a wider pattern. A separate joint investigation by BIRN and Investigate Europe, published in September 2025, found Israeli businessman Eliran Oved—a convicted money launderer who served a year in prison in 2012 for running an illegal gambling website—and his wife Liat Kourtz Oved connected through a network of shell companies and frontmen to call centers and fake investment platforms that German authorities say defrauded over 70,000 people of an estimated €250 million. The call centers, based in Belgrade, were raided by Serbian police in January 2023; 21 employees have since been indicted on fraud charges. The Oveds themselves have not been charged with any criminal offense in connection with the Belgrade operations and did not respond to requests for comment.

The Times of Israel has documented Israel’s long struggle with call-center investment fraud operations targeting victims abroad, including the earlier “binary options” scandal centered in Israel which victimized tens of thousands of people worldwide. Anjouan’s near-zero regulatory enforcement, lack of taxes, and easily purchased licenses made it a useful but legally hollow stamp of legitimacy for these schemes.

Investigative journalism outlet ABC Australia found, with the figure cited in iGamingToday’s reporting on Julian Fell’s investigation, that a network of companies selling fraudulent Anjouan licenses was “likely generating tens of millions of euros annually” from the banks and casinos buying these non-functional credentials. These fraud operations did not emerge in a political vacuum. They developed against the backdrop of one of the most contentious and legally contested bilateral relationships in the Indian Ocean world—the fractured and unresolved relationship between the Union of Comoros and the State of Israel.

The diplomatic relationship between Israel and the Union of Comoros has been one of the most volatile in the broader Arab world. In November 1994, Comoros announced it had established diplomatic ties with Israel, but the move did not materialize. Comoros reversed itself, announcing normalization would only occur after a comprehensive Middle East peace settlement. Comoros has never formally recognized Israel since gaining independence from France in 1975.

One of the most significant legal confrontations between Comoros and Israel involved the 2010 Gaza flotilla raid. The Turkish vessel Mavi Marmara, which was sailing under the Comoros flag toward Gaza to break Israel’s naval blockade, was boarded by Israeli Defense Forces on May 31, 2010. Ten activists were killed and several IDF soldiers were wounded. Because the ship was registered to Comoros, making it legally Comorian territory, Comoros referred the incident to the International Criminal Court in May 2013.

This triggered a years-long legal saga. The ICC Prosecutor initially declined to open a formal investigation on November 6, 2014, ruling the crimes lacked “sufficient gravity,” but Comoros appealed. The Pre-Trial Chamber ruled on July 16, 2015 that the prosecutor had made “material errors” and ordered the case reconsidered. The prosecutor declined again on November 29, 2017 and then on December 2, 2019. The Appeals Chamber on September 2, 2019 had ordered that third reconsideration, but the ICC ultimately closed the case on December 21, 2020, rejecting any further review of the Prosecutor’s determination.

That legal confrontation did not prevent renewed diplomatic contacts a decade later. Beginning around 2021, the Biden administration brought Comoros and Israel together for normalization discussions. Israeli diplomatic sources identified Comoros as among the leading candidates for the next normalization deal. Former Comorian president Ahmed Sambi publicly stated that Israel had previously offered his country financial aid in exchange for normalization, which he refused. By June 2023, Comoros had agreed to attend a ministerial meeting of the Negev Forum as an observer—a modest but symbolically significant step—though the meeting was subsequently postponed by Morocco following Israeli settlement announcements and never took place. No normalization deal between Comoros and Israel was ever finalized.

The October 7, 2023 Hamas attack and Israel’s subsequent war in Gaza completely reversed Comoros’ trajectory toward normalization. In March 2025, Comoros submitted a formal written statement to the ICJ characterizing Israel’s actions—including the cessation of UNRWA operations—as violations of international humanitarian law, suggesting these acts may constitute crimes against humanity or genocide. On October 29, 2025, Comoros formally filed a declaration of intervention in South Africa’s genocide case at the ICJ—joining Spain, Ireland, Libya, Mexico, Belgium, and Turkey among the countries that have joined the proceedings. The Comorian president also addressed the UN General Assembly in September 2025, accusing Israel of committing genocide in Gaza.

What we observe in the Indian Ocean is the inevitable result of a worldview that deems Gentile populations as little more than cattle. By treating the island of Anjouan as a digital-age clearinghouse for international fraud, Jewish networks are merely perfecting a centuries-old tradition of financial warfare. Africa represents only the current frontier for this Jewish predation, chosen for its regulatory fragility and leaders willing to trade their nation’s dignity for shekels. The “Scam Empire” is not an outlier but rather the manifestation of a parasitic impulse that requires the constant exploitation of foreign peoples to sustain the mothership—the State of Israel—which remains the ultimate bastion for, and primary beneficiary of, this coordinated global theft of gentile resources.