“Operation Chargeback”: Merkur subsidiary processed payments

As part of “Operation Chargeback,” authorities are investigating international money laundering networks. Ex-Wirecard managers have now been charged. According to BR research, traces also lead to a daughter

Exclusive money laundering networks Merkur subsidiary appears in payment flows As of: October 23, 2026 • 7:04 a.m

According to its website, the Euro Payment Group (EPG) offers secure and certified online payments. The company belongs to Germany's largest gaming group Merkur, once founded by Paul Gauselmann. The Federal Cross of Merit recipient died in August shortly before his 92nd birthday. The corporate empire he created makes its sales from arcades, online casinos - and from the EPG.

According to research by Bayerischer Rundfunk, the Merkur subsidiary can be linked to the so-called chargeback scandal, which made international headlines a year ago. Emails, internal documents and confidential investigation documents show that EPG processed credit card payments for shell companies and operators of fake websites.

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"Operation Chargeback" is an investigation by the Federal Criminal Police Office (BKA) and the Koblenz Public Prosecutor's Office against international fraud and money laundering networks. The focus is on the misuse of credit card data and illegal payment processing via companies and websites that were only founded in appearance.

In the period from 2016 to 2021, the alleged perpetrators are said to have stolen 300 million euros. At the beginning of November last year, investigators searched 60 properties in nine countries, including Germany and the USA. 18 arrest warrants were executed. Former Wirecard managers are also in custody.

According to BR research, EPG was also involved via Wirecard. As a so-called “payment facilitator,” it acted as a link between the Wirecard bank and online retailers whose customers paid with credit cards.

The defendants in the chargeback proceedings are said to have set up hundreds of fake companies and thus operated more than 2,000 professionally designed fake websites, primarily in the pornography sector. With the help of these sites, online retailers that were also sham and misused credit card data, the fraud networks are said to have taken out around 19 million subscriptions and initiated debits.

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The large-scale fraud was possible because executives from payment service providers are said to have helped to generate and process the fraudulent sales. The Koblenz authorities are not only investigating former Wirecard employees, but also those involved in other German payment service providers. Because the EPG operated through a subsidiary from Malta, the German investigators did not take any action in this case, according to the Koblenz Public Prosecutor's Office.

Similar to the pattern of fraud in the chargeback process with bogus traders and porn sites, according to BR research, payments were also processed by the Merkur subsidiary EPG. This is proven by internal documents from the credit card company Visa. An Excel table lists around 30 companies that are referred to as “merchant”.

These dealer companies are mostly registered in Consett, UK. In the Wirecard complex, these so-called Consett companies have become known as shell companies that conducted fictitious transactions with straw people. In the table, various abbreviations appear next to the dealer names, for example "WIZNETPRO".

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BR Research has decoded these abbreviations and revealed which companies are behind them. The fake dealers registered with EPG can be assigned to another company network through which the fake porn site subscriptions were ultimately billed.

In the end, the funds ended up with other shell companies, most of which were registered in Cyprus or Great Britain and had an account with Wirecard Bank.

The investigating authorities attribute these payees to Ray Akhavan. Akhavan, known in the scene as the “porn baron,” was considered a close confidant of the ex-Wirecard board member Jan Marsalek, who went into hiding. In 2024, Akhavan died of a drug overdose in Los Angeles. According to investigators, he was a key figure in the chargeback scandal.

At Visa, the EPG has attracted negative attention several times. According to internal emails and documents, the credit card company repeatedly complained to Wirecard in 2016 and 2017 about high chargeback rates associated with EPG merchants. Chargebacks are reversals of disputed payments. These are “excessive,” wrote a Visa employee from the risk management department to Wirecard in May 2017. EPG therefore has to restructure its dealer portfolio.

And: The Merkur subsidiary is Visa Europe's “worst chargeback case,” the credit card company wrote in an additional overview. As a result, the credit card company imposed fines amounting to several hundred thousand euros. Visa did not comment on this when asked.

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A Merkur spokesman confirmed to BR that the fines had been paid and that "the resulting losses were borne by EPG." He also admitted that "the companies you mentioned were predominantly traders" of the EPG portfolio.

However, he emphasized that the company was "at no time aware of any fraudulent purpose of the payments processed". All card processing for online retailers was “finished in spring 2017”. Former EPG executives did not comment on the company's business when contacted by BR.

This topic in the program: tagesschau.de | “Operation Chargeback”: Merkur subsidiary processed payments via shell companies | Oct 23, 2026 | 06:00 am