German court convicts alleged mastermind behind global investment scam network

A German court sentenced Mikheil Biniashvili, identified as a central figure in the Milton Group call-center fraud, to seven-and-a-half years for running a large-scale scam that used call-center agents and fake online trading platforms to defraud victims—causing about €8 million in direct losses and an additional €42 million attributed to the proprietary PumaTS platform he created and sold to other criminal groups; he was arrested in Armenia, extradited to Germany, and ordered to forfeit €2.4 million, while the verdict remains appealable.