Affactive, Revenue Jet affiliate programs shut down following owners' arrests
The GPWA has confirmed the link between the closing of the programs and the arrests of the owners through conversations with Affactive affiliate managers. The GPWA also suspended Affactive's sponsorship on Thursday.
Gery Shalon, 31, and Ziv Orenstein, 40, were arrested on Tuesday at their homes in Israel. They have been accused by U.S. authorities of engaging in "pump and dump" stock manipulation schemes dating back to 2011. An indictment filed in New York charges the suspects — along with Joshua Samuel Aaron, 31, a U.S. citizen living in Moscow and Tel Aviv — with money laundering, identity theft, and securities and wire fraud.
According to a U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission statement made Wednesday, the three suspects obtained shares in several penny stocks, increased the prices by 1,800 percent and sold the shares to recoup at least $2.8 million in illicit proceeds.
When police arrested Shalon, a search of his property found 2 million shekels ($520,000) in cash, according to Israel Hayom.
On Wednesday, Bloomberg reported an FBI document linked Shalon and Orenstein to the 2014 hack of JPMorgan Chase, from which hackers managed to mine gigabytes of customer account data undetected for months.
Upon hearing news of the programs' shutdowns and arrests of the owners, GPWA forum members noted past instances of complaints about both Affactive and Revenue Jet, specifically in regards to affiliate and player payments.
Affactive promoted online casinos such as Win Palace Casino, Casino Titan, Jackpot Grand Casino and Golden Cherry Casino. Revenue Jet promoted Loco Panda Casino, Classy Coin Casino, Grand Parker Casino and OnBling Casino.