Turkish authorities traced approximately $160 million across electronic devices seized from Andreas Szakacs. These details emerged in late August from Turkish media, following Szakacs's arrest on July 10th. He had been living under the alias "Emre Avci" when police located him.
Investigators questioned Szakacs, who claimed OmegaPro was not a fraudulent operation. Instead, he asserted the company "went bankrupt around September or October 2022." He tried to present himself as a victim, stating, "We suffered the biggest loss. We covered the losses of many victims until we went bankrupt." Timur Soykan of Birgun first reported these statements on August 21st.
This account clashes with the established facts of OmegaPro's operation. Financial regulators across several continents identified OmegaPro as a large-scale Ponzi scheme from its inception in late 2018. The scheme promised unrealistic returns on investments, relying on new investor money to pay off earlier participants. Victim losses worldwide are estimated to be in the billions of dollars, with most of those funds still unaccounted for.
Szakacs offered an explanation for his alias, denying he was fleeing anyone. "No, there is not," he told investigators when asked about evading pursuit. He stated he changed his name because it was his "legal right." He described himself as a finance and marketing professional earning $100,000 monthly. Szakacs also told authorities he recently obtained Turkish citizenship through construction investments. However, he could not recall the specific locations of these investments when pressed for details.
The raid on Szakacs's four-story luxury villa yielded significant evidence. Police seized 32 cold wallets and other password storage devices, all containing cryptocurrency. Investigators managed to access one computer, finding numerous OmegaPro documents. These records detailed extensive money movements related to the scheme. The same digital folder contained a list of wallet addresses for various cryptocurrencies. Whiteboards throughout the villa also displayed crypto wallet numbers and related information.
Szakacs has offered no cooperation to the authorities. He has refused to provide passwords for any of the seized devices, including the cryptocurrency wallets. Turkish officials have classified him as non-cooperative in their ongoing investigation. Accessing these locked devices is a critical step for tracing the missing funds and identifying other individuals involved.
Police also conducted a raid on a second villa, rented under the name Stefan Andreas. This individual, a Swedish national, is described as an accomplice to Szakacs and remains at large. The name Stefan Andreas has not previously appeared in public reports concerning the OmegaPro investigation. Szakacs's known co-founders in the scheme, Michael Shannon Sims and Dilawar Singh, are also still at large.
Andreas Szakacs is believed to be held at Maltepe prison. The full scope of the international investigation into OmegaPro and its estimated billion-dollar losses continues to unfold.