Police say hundreds of residents in Divjakë, Lushnjë, and surrounding areas were lured by an online platform promising quick profits.
La Bontà, a stylish Italian restaurant on Lushnjë's palm-lined boulevard, is a popular meeting spot for families and young people. But in late August, the restaurant began advertising something new besides its pizzas and pasta dishes: cryptocurrency investments. Promising “eternal profits” and “many rewards,” the ads were, according to Albanian State Police, a front for a classic pyramid scheme.
“The more people you brought in and the larger the amount you invested, the higher the promised income,” police stated. “But in reality, these were not real investments, but a well-organized mechanism for misappropriating funds through fraud, where only the top levels benefited, while the majority, especially the lower part of the pyramid, lost their savings.”
The scheme is suspected to have started in Albania last autumn through the Telegram app and cryptocurrency trading platforms XUEX and Binance. It quickly grew, ensnaring hundreds of citizens, primarily in the Divjakë and Lushnjë areas. According to investigative data, the scheme even involved public officials who recruited family and friends with promises of fast, substantial profits.
But in recent months, the scheme began to unravel as investors were not getting their money back as promised, leading to its exposure.
Undercover Agents Uncover the Deception
Emanuel Taullau, a 21-year-old waiter at La Bontà, was arrested on September 14 as one of six suspects involved in the cryptocurrency pyramid scheme. He told investigators he was earning a monthly salary of 45,000 Albanian Lek and had invested 100,000 Lek himself in June 2025 on the XUEX platform, which he learned about from friends. He made the investment by transferring money from a bank account to Binance and then to XUEX. He claimed to have virtually profited 120,000 Lek, which he had not withdrawn.
On August 27, Fier Police launched an investigation with undercover agents after finding posters advertising XUEX in the restaurant's window with slogans like "Invest once, eternal profits." The agents, posing as interested investors, were told by Taullau that a $1,000 deposit was required and that information was shared in Telegram groups. He added that the platform’s hub was in Divjakë and had many participants.
In a second meeting, Taullau introduced the agents to his colleague, Flavio Mukaj, 23, who was also arrested. The two waiters registered one of the undercover agents on Binance and the Telegram groups, after which Taullau transferred $1,000 to XUEX, using an additional $100 from Mukaj’s account. The agent handed him 100,000 Lek in cash, and the entire procedure was documented with audio and video.
When questioned, Taullau insisted that he only helped the agents because they asked about the advertisement and he was already a registered user. He denied being employed by any such company and claimed he had not profited from the transaction or recruited anyone else before. He said he didn’t know what had happened to his own investment. Despite his claims, he was arrested in the act, along with Mukaj and the restaurant owner, Arbër Çela. Çela’s Audi Q7 was seized, as police suspect it was purchased with illegal proceeds from the online cryptocurrency scheme.
Who is “Leo Smith”?
Police investigations in Divjakë uncovered the involvement of dozens of people in the pyramid scheme, which was organized through Telegram and the XUEX platform. One of the suspected agents of the scheme is Ereledio Shebeku, a 35-year-old man who is currently wanted by police. He created a Telegram group of five people, each of whom invested between $1,000 and $5,000.
Shebeku communicated regularly with a person identified only as Leo Smith. In addition to investing, participants were asked to “like” pages sent on Telegram at specific times each day in exchange for a promised profit of 1% of their investment.
Leo Smith is presented as a person who communicates with XUEX platform users on Telegram, acting as a “mentor” or the person who provides “trading signals” and motivation for investments. According to statements from those involved in the scheme, he is said to be British. Smith uses a relatively formal and often robotic-sounding language in his messages. Some experts believe he could be a fictional identity or a computer program that operates through automated messages.
Evidence gathered during the investigation also reveals elements of fear and pressure. Marius Kodra, a 28-year-old from Tirana, said that after recruiting others, he began receiving threats to return their money. In chats obtained by the police, “Leo Smith” responded to him without providing any guarantees: “It’s not money that is lost, it’s just a delay in payment… the only thing we can do is wait.”
According to police, around 580 people in the Divjakë municipality alone registered and invested significant amounts, with promised profits to be withdrawn every 45 days through bank accounts and the Binance platform. The investigation shows that Shebeku also recruited his family members, while another suspect, Brunilda Ndini, an employee of the Divjakë Municipality, brought in colleagues and local residents.
Even La Bontà’s owner, Arbër Çela, admitted to having invested $2,300 in April and withdrawing up to $9,000 in Prizren, Kosovo. He considers himself a victim of fraud and denies recruiting anyone else.
BIRN spoke with two currency exchange offices in Prizren that also offer cryptocurrency exchange services. One agent said he had no knowledge of such cases, while another, speaking anonymously, confirmed a large influx of Albanian citizens converting their Binance funds into Euros and withdrawing cash in July and August. He said five to ten people arrived each week, with withdrawn amounts ranging from 3,000 to 5,000 Euros each. He added that to date, there has been no interest from law enforcement authorities, either in Kosovo or Albania, regarding these transactions.
Investigators say the scheme functioned as a recruitment chain, where early investors brought in others, constantly expanding the network and promised profits. Through this method, according to the police, a sophisticated fraudulent scheme was established, involving a large number of residents in Divjakë and the surrounding areas.
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