Lithuania’s Foxpay scandal has expanded far beyond the affairs of one local electronic-money institution. Investigative material reviewed by Lithuanian news outlet Delfi describes an international financial network involving companies in Lithuania, Switzerland and Cyprus, as well as three foreign clients whose transactions are now under scrutiny.
Two of those foreign figures are Israeli citizens. Based on the biographical details contained in the Lithuanian report, they appear to be fintech entrepreneur Michael “Mike” Zetser and convicted Israeli financial operator Ziv Orenstein.
The distinction between the two men is important. Orenstein’s criminal history is documented through US court proceedings and Department of Justice announcements. Zetser, by contrast, has not publicly been identified as a defendant in the Lithuanian Foxpay prosecution. The Foxpay report itself states that Lithuanian authorities have declined to disclose whether the unnamed foreign clients have been charged or what their formal legal status is.
More Than €17 Million Under Investigation
According to information obtained by Delfi, Lithuanian investigators believe that precisely €17,462,302.19 in allegedly criminally derived funds may have been processed and “legalized” through Foxpay between March 1, 2023 and April 8, 2024.
The Lithuanian investigation reportedly connects Foxpay to Swiss companies within the iSun network, including RefixCon AG and Swiss Wealth Management AG, the company behind the SwissMoney payment platform. Investigators regard Vilhelms Germanas and Ieva Trinkūnaitė as the effective controllers of these entities, despite the involvement of various formally registered directors.
The suspected transactions reportedly belonged to three foreign citizens: German businessman Marcus Prinz von Anhalt and two Israelis living or operating through Cyprus. The report does not formally name either Israeli, but provides unusually detailed descriptions that make their identities relatively apparent.
The case materials reportedly describe transactions involving “transitivity, layering and integration”—terms commonly used to describe the stages through which illicit proceeds are moved, separated from their origin and returned to the financial system with an apparently legitimate explanation. Lithuanian investigators allege that at least €17.46 million was processed through structures involving Foxpay, RefixCon and Swiss Wealth Management.
These remain allegations within an ongoing investigation. Lithuanian prosecutors have declined to reveal the procedural status of the foreign clients or confirm whether international legal-assistance requests have been issued.
Michael Zetser: From Payment Processing to Flyfish
The first unnamed Israeli is described as a Russian-born Israeli fintech entrepreneur living in Cyprus, celebrated in the Israeli business media as a young financial innovator and included in a Forbes Israel ranking of influential Israelis under 30.
Those details closely correspond with Michael Zetser.
Forbes Israel included Zetser in its 2024 “30 Under 30” list and identified him as the founder of Flyfish. According to Zetser’s account to Forbes, he previously established a payment-gateway software company in Herzliya that grew to approximately 60 employees before he launched Flyfish.
Flyfish presents itself as a marketplace for business financial services. Its promoted services include business accounts, IBANs, physical and virtual payment cards, international transfers and currency conversion. Zetser has described the company as an attempt to consolidate services that businesses would otherwise obtain from multiple banking and payment providers.
The Foxpay article gives a markedly different context. It states that the unnamed entrepreneur had previously attracted the attention of Israel’s Lahav 433 national crime unit during an investigation involving suspected financial offences and possible money laundering. It also reports that the businessman was again of interest to Israeli law enforcement near the end of the following year, although Delfi could not establish whether that event was connected to Foxpay.
This description should not be interpreted as proof that Zetser committed an offence in Lithuania or Israel. The supplied article does not say that the unnamed Israeli was charged in the Foxpay case, and Lithuanian authorities expressly refused to clarify the foreign clients’ legal status.
Finera and GumballPay
Before Flyfish, Zetser was publicly associated in the payments industry with payment-gateway and payment-orchestration businesses.
GumballPay has been presented as a payment-gateway and merchant-processing operation, while Finera markets itself as a payment-orchestration platform offering card processing, alternative payment methods and open-banking integrations. Finera’s current public website describes its service as infrastructure intended to connect merchants with multiple payment methods and processing solutions.
The potential significance of Finera and GumballPay is not that their ordinary services prove misconduct. Payment orchestration, gateways and cross-border merchant processing are legitimate areas of financial technology.
Nevertheless, such businesses occupy a sensitive position in the payments chain. They may connect merchants, acquiring banks, payment institutions and alternative payment providers across several jurisdictions. Where a merchant operates in a high-risk sector, deficiencies in customer verification, transaction monitoring or source-of-funds checks can expose every connected provider to regulatory and criminal risk.
Publicly available material establishes Zetser’s background in payment-gateway technology and his later leadership of Flyfish. It does not, by itself, prove that Finera, GumballPay or Flyfish participated in the transactions described by Lithuanian investigators. Any article connecting the companies directly to Foxpay should therefore explain the precise corporate, contractual or transactional evidence supporting that connection.
The Reported €15 Million Israeli Tax Settlement
Claims have circulated that Zetser or businesses associated with him paid approximately €15 million to the Israel Tax Authority following an Israeli tax investigation.
At present, no publicly accessible judgment, Tax Authority announcement or reliable mainstream report was located that independently confirms the amount, the legal basis for the payment or whether it was a tax assessment, negotiated civil settlement, forfeiture, penalty or criminal fine.
That distinction is essential. Payment of an assessed tax liability is legally different from a criminal fine, while a settlement does not necessarily include an admission of criminal wrongdoing.
Until a court decision, settlement document or official Israeli Tax Authority record is produced, the responsible formulation is:
Sources familiar with Zetser’s Israeli affairs have alleged that he or related entities reached a payment or settlement valued at approximately €15 million with the Israel Tax Authority. The amount and nature of that alleged payment could not be independently verified through publicly available official records.
It should not be reported categorically that Zetser “paid a €15 million criminal fine” unless documentation specifically confirms both the amount and its criminal character.
Ziv Orenstein: A Documented US Criminal Case
The second unnamed Israeli in the Foxpay article can be identified with much greater confidence as Ziv Orenstein.
The article describes an Israeli who managed a Cyprus-registered company and became internationally known following the massive cyberattack connected to JPMorgan Chase. It states that he and his associates were accused of manipulating securities, operating unlawful online casinos, running an illegal Bitcoin exchange and laundering proceeds through dozens of shell companies.
Orenstein was arrested in Israel in July 2015 and later extradited to the United States. US prosecutors accused him, Gery Shalon and Joshua Samuel Aaron of participating in stock-manipulation schemes involving deceptive promotional emails and coordinated trading.
The wider federal case involved cyberattacks against financial institutions and other companies. Prosecutors alleged that Shalon and Orenstein also operated illicit payment processors known as IDPay and Todur. According to the Department of Justice, those processors knowingly handled hundreds of millions of dollars in transactions for unlawful pharmaceutical operations, counterfeit or malicious software businesses, illegal internet casinos and the unlawful Coin.mx Bitcoin exchange.
Orenstein subsequently pleaded guilty and was sentenced in 2020. Secondary reporting of the judgment states that he received an 11-month custodial sentence—effectively covered by time already served—and was ordered to forfeit approximately $1.8 million.
Unlike the claims concerning Zetser, Orenstein’s role in the US criminal enterprise is therefore not merely an unresolved media allegation. It is connected to a completed federal prosecution and guilty plea.
What remains unclear is his exact status in Lithuania. The Foxpay article links the profile of one foreign client to Orenstein’s history, but Lithuanian authorities have not publicly stated whether he is a suspect, witness, account holder or uncharged subject of the investigation.
Why the Two Israeli Connections Matter
The alleged presence of Zetser and Orenstein in the same Foxpay transaction network would be significant because the men represent two very different sides of the international payments industry.
Zetser has publicly presented himself as a new-generation fintech founder seeking to make banking and payment services more accessible. Orenstein is a convicted participant in an international operation that US authorities connected to securities fraud, illegal gambling, illicit payment processing and money laundering.
Their appearance in the same Lithuanian investigation does not establish that they acted together. Nor does it demonstrate that money belonging to either man was criminally derived. It does, however, raise serious questions about Foxpay’s customer-acceptance procedures, source-of-funds controls and the handling of transactions involving clients with significant law-enforcement histories or heightened risk profiles.
According to the Lithuanian case materials quoted by Delfi, investigators allege that Foxpay personnel knew that the foreign clients were associated with fraud, money laundering, human trafficking or other criminal conduct, yet still facilitated their transactions.
The accused Foxpay executives deny wrongdoing. Trinkūnaitė has argued that no customer funds disappeared, that clients were repaid and that the allegations are being used to destroy the business. She also emphasized that the presumption of innocence must continue to apply.
Alleged Connections to Israeli Organized Crime
There are also claims that Zetser has maintained relationships with members or associates of Israeli organized-crime families.
No sufficiently reliable public court record, police statement or well-sourced investigative report was located that proves Zetser is a member of, works for or knowingly provides financial services to a particular Israeli crime organization.
This allegation must therefore be handled with particular caution. Social contact, shared business relationships or the use of the same financial intermediary does not, without additional evidence, establish participation in organized crime.
A legally responsible article may report the issue only in qualified terms:
Separate sources have alleged that Zetser has had business or personal relationships with figures associated with Israel’s criminal underworld. No public criminal judgment or official police document establishing Zetser’s participation in an Israeli crime organization was located, and the nature of the alleged relationships remains unverified.
The names of particular crime families should not be published without documentary evidence, multiple independent sources or an on-record law-enforcement statement. Presenting such an allegation as established fact could be both misleading and defamatory.
A Network Still Hidden Behind Corporate Layers
The Foxpay investigation illustrates how modern financial-crime cases can move through a combination of licensed payment institutions, technology platforms, Swiss companies, Cyprus structures and nominal corporate officers.
The Lithuanian article alleges that Foxpay was only one component of a broader system connected to iSun, RefixCon and Swiss Wealth Management. It also reports that investigators possess information about further episodes that could increase the suspected total from €17.46 million to as much as €200 million.
That larger figure has not been tested in court.
For now, the central unanswered questions remain straightforward:
Where did the €17.46 million originate?
Which accounts and companies received it?
Were Michael Zetser and Ziv Orenstein merely customers, beneficial owners of the funds, intermediaries or active participants?
What roles, if any, were played by Finera, GumballPay and Flyfish?
Did Israeli authorities share information with Lithuanian investigators?
And have any of the foreign clients been formally designated as suspects?
Until prosecutors provide those answers, the story should be reported as an active international investigation—not as a concluded finding of guilt.