Hacking, threats and defamation: Baazov at the heart of a lawsuit in Israel

BERLIN, Germany

A package is left outside a Berlin residence on a cold February day. The package contains a black alarm clock and it is accompanied by a short message: Dear Ivan, it’s never too late to wish you happy birthday. This is just the beginning. Tick ​​tock.

The message is addressed to Ivan Montik, founder and CEO of SoftSwiss, a large Belarusian virtual casino company.

And it’s obviously a threat.

At the time, in 2021, Montik was the target of a planet-wide smear campaign.

The allegations are serious: fraud, money laundering… One of his associates is even accused of having ordered the murder of a Bulgarian journalist.

Over the following months, hundreds of accusatory videos and publications appeared on the Internet about Montik and his business partners at the head of SoftSwiss.

Threats are also sent to them and their families.

Ivan, what were you thinking? Defraud Jews and get away with it? You killed 350,000 Jews in Belarus during the Holocaust and that didn’t help you! I promise you’ll cry for what you did, you idiot.

You know what you have to do and who you have to call, otherwise this marathon will end badly for you and your partnersindicates another message, this time addressed to a business partner of Montik.

Some messages are strangely signed by the Israeli intelligence services, which is impossible to corroborate but gives an idea of ​​the pressure that we wish to exert on these people.

This spy movie-esque affair – still ongoing – is amply described in Israeli court documents obtained by Investigation.

For Ivan Montik and his partners, there is no doubt that Quebec businessman Ofer Josh Baazov, who manages the Abenaki casino in Wôlinak, in Center-du-Québec, plays a central role in this story.

In addition to the threats, Montik and his partners maintain that they were the target of a criminal hacking operation orchestrated by Mr. Baazov.

DONETSK, Ukraine

A year before Ivan Montik received the alarm at his door, a meeting took place at the Verone cafe in Donetsk, a secessionist and pro-Russian Ukrainian city.

Telecommunications specialists planned to hack the phone of the finance director of the SoftSwiss company.

This operation was carried out at the request of an obscure company in the British Virgin Islands called Capital WW Investment Limited. The latter suspected SoftSwiss executives of major fraud.

The hack took place…and was a success.

At the beginning of 2020, Capital WW had access to the hacked material: some 8,000 personal documents belonging to the financial director of SoftSwiss. Among other stolen documents: all his encrypted Telegram messages, photos, documents, emails, the list of his contacts…

But who is behind Capital WW? They are Canadian Josh Baazov and two Israeli business partners.

Baazov would be there force vive behind the hacking campaign, according to the lawsuit filed by Montik. And some of the stolen information was distributed on the Internet.

MONTREAL, Quebec

The 8,000 documents stolen by the Donetsk hackers are mainly written in Russian and Belarusian.

In March 2020, the stolen material was sent to the Montreal-based law firm Levy Salis for translation and analysis. At the time, Levy Salis represented the interests of Capital WW.

The stakes are high: we are talking about hundreds of millions of euros in profits that Josh Baazov believes he was deprived of. Indeed, Baazov was not an adversary of Ivan Montik: they were partners in the virtual casino sector.

In 2019, the Quebec businessman had actually purchased a majority block of shares in SoftSwiss with his company Capital WW.

But the transaction went wrong.

Montik and his Belarusian associates allegedly wanted to rob him of his shares in SoftSwiss. Information hacked at the request of Capital WW would prove this conspiracy.

However, a judge in the British Virgin Islands had to decide otherwise.

ROAD TOWN, British Virgin Islands

After analyzing Telegram messages from SoftSwiss’s chief financial officer obtained in the hack, a judge in the British Virgin Islands said they did not support conspiracy allegations.

In passing, the judge denounced tactics worthy of a spy novel. Hacking a computer or server is “inappropriate”he wrote in a decision dated November 2020. Anyone who uses their own computer and stores confidential information on a hard drive or in a server has a reasonable expectation of privacy.

And one thing was clear to the judge: Capital WW knew very well what the hackers were doing.

Despite this ruling, Josh Baazov wrote this to Investigation : There was no hacking, neither on the part of my associates nor on the part of the third party [les pirates de Donestk, NDLR]and anyway, the allegations have nothing to do with me.

TEL AVIV, Israel

After a first legal round in the British Virgin Islands, the conflict between Josh Baazov and his former business partners moved to Israel.

Baazov was the driving force behind the twisted and criminal decision to undertake the smear campaignsupports a civil suit filed in a Tel Aviv court in 2022 by Montik and his Belarusian associates.

Baazov’s conduct is described as typically mafia.

Why a lawsuit in Israel? Because the publication of the defamatory videos would have been orchestrated from this country. Furthermore, Josh Baazov, in addition to being a Canadian citizen, is also Israeli.

The Belarusians are demanding four million dollars from Baazov and his associates.

Moreover, this defamation campaign is still ongoing. Investigation noticed that videos are constantly being posted online.

The trial has not yet taken place in this case, but Israeli judge Jacob Shaked has already heard from witnesses who claim that Josh Baazov is behind this smear campaign.

One of these witnesses is an Israeli rabbi based in Moscow.

MOSCOW, Russia

Shmuel Kuperman is a rabbi who runs a Jewish community center in Moscow.

He contacted Josh Baazov several times to mediate the dispute over control of SoftSwiss, the virtual casino company.

This mediation failed.

In 2023, Rabbi Kuperman testified in the Israeli court and an affidavit was produced.

His words are incriminating. Baazov allegedly admitted to him that he was behind the campaign of threats against Montik and the other Belarusians.

Josh [Baazov] told me that I would soon see additional publications […]publications accusing them of crimes they had not committed, for example the murder of a Bulgarian journalist, money laundering, etc., in order to put pressure on themwrites the rabbi in his affidavit, adding that Mr. Baazov boasted of this intimidation operation.

From time to time, Josh informed me of new videos that were going to be published for the purpose of defamation […]. These posts contained private conversations obtained through hacking of their devices, including photos of the wives […]which were distributed to company employees.

A close collaborator of Mr. Baazov even told Rabbi Kuperman that That was Josh’s style. […] and that he did not hesitate to use illegitimate means when other solutions were not available.

According to another witness, an Israeli cybersecurity expert, Baazov is at the origin of this defamation campaign and he finances it, notably in cryptocurrency.

These testimonies convinced Judge Shaked that this was a serious matter.

They both perjured themselves in courtreacted Josh Baazov in an email sent to Investigation.

Josh Baazov denies any involvement in computer hacking and this smear campaign. According to his defense filed in Israel, the suit is absurd and baseless.

This is an intimidation tactic, his Israeli lawyers say.

He would rather be the victim. A gang of Russian criminals stole his business, he adds in his email sent to Investigationadding that the latter have published everything negative on [lui].

Certain websites, of which - has become aware, are indeed broadcasting negative information about Josh Baazov.

These sites contain serious liesdenounces the businessman involved in the Wôlinak casino.

He is described as a person hungry for easy money Who carries out obscure transactions, a liar who acts like a mafia boss and who is involved in fraudulent activities in Russia and Israela man at the head of a criminal organization Who launder money and who practices corruptionlists among others Baazov in his countersuit against the Belarusians.

In turn, Baazov is suing his former business partners in Israel. He is seeking $35 million in damages.

This affair could still hold many surprises, because Josh Baazov would not have no limitsaccording to the lawsuit filed by SoftSwiss founder Ivan Montik.

The next court hearing in Israel is scheduled for March 2025.

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