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While Crypto Capital Corp, the once shadow bank for the entire crypto industry, wound down after $850 million was seized sometime between late 2018 and early 2019, the ramifications of its demise continue to be felt.
In the fallout from the collapse, two individuals were prosecuted: Reginald Fowler, who’s now serving prison time after pleading guilty to bank fraud, wire fraud, and operating an unlicensed money transmitting service, and Ivan Manuel Molina Lee, who remains in Poland after being arrested in Greece in 2019 and later extradited.
Two other associated individuals — brother and sister Oz and Ravid Yosef — remain fugitives of the law.
Protos tracked Ravid, aka Ravid Israel, to Israel where she’d begun an IVF business that failed. She subsequently started working for a UK-based fertility start-up.
However, the story doesn’t end there. In a twist the likes of which only the crypto industry can offer, criminal proceedings against Molina Lee and his associates continues in Poland, with new consequential details emerging this month.
The Israeli mob and cocaine in power generators
Earlier, Polish court proceedings revealed a supposed intricate criminal conspiracy involving the Israeli mafia, Crypto Capital Corp, and cocaine being hidden in and transported via power generators.
According to Onet.pl, the largest news website in Poland, nearly the entire $850 million seized from Crypto Capital Corp (which ended up causing withdrawal issues at numerous exchanges, including, but not limited to, Bitfinex and now defunct Canadian exchange QuadrigaCX) was linked to an “Israeli drug lord” who was trafficking 100 kilograms of cocaine from Colombia to Europe every month.
Apparently, Molina Lee, who has ties to Canada, Panama, Colombia, and Poland, was helping to launder funds received for the cocaine through Crypto Capital Corp and making crypto purchases via multiple exchanges.
The links between cocaine trafficking and Crypto Capital Corp appear to be anything but fictional.
In 2019 online sleuths discovered an office located in Bogotá, Colombia that was listed as the Colombian headquarters for Crypto Capital Corp. The shadow bank also had offices in Panama, where Molina Lee and Oz Yosef managed their affairs.
Read more: Scoop: Crypto Capital Corp’s Ravid Yosef is flouting extradition in Israel
If accusations prove true, the trafficking scheme worked something like this: the Israeli mafia, represented by Shalom Lior Azoulay, would acquire hundreds of kilograms of cocaine in Colombia, paying producers with crypto.
The cocaine would then be transferred to Europe hidden in power generators, often arriving in The Netherlands and then moving throughout the rest of the continent, where the co-conspirators and their associates would then receive cash for the drugs.
Once they had cash in hand, they would move the funds through multiple banks, including a small Polish bank called the Cooperative Bank in Skierniewice, buy crypto, and then once again use it to purchase cocaine in Colombia.
In 2018, Bitfinex users reported that they were asked to utilize the same bank for wire transfers into and out of the exchange.
Azoulay implicates Reginald Fowler testimony
While Fowler never pled guilty to money laundering or crimes associated with drug trafficking, it appears that the Israeli charged in the drug trafficking conspiracy, Shalom Azoulay, implicates him as the reason he’s unable to leave Poland and facing significant jail time.
Azoulay told Onet.pl, “This is building a case based on the testimony of one officer from the United States. From the very beginning, I have been trying to explain that I’m in no way involved.
“At the last hearing in December 2025, I also confirmed that I had nothing to do with it. It’s creating a case that has no legal basis.”
Despite the implications of the case, Israelis Oz and Ravid Yosef remain at-large, with no signs they will be apprehended and extradited by Israeli law enforcement, and Fowler is facing no additional charges for his role in the possible drug trafficking conspiracy.
cointelegraph.com
crypto.news
bitcoinmagazine.com
decrypt.co