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For sensationalist media, the last couple of weeks have been a dazzling rollercoaster of “breaking news”, worthy of a spy movie script: coded messages, high-end telecom equipment trafficking, cryptocurrencies and “underpinning interests”. The infodemic triggered by Iosefina Pascal, a prominent Solidnews contributor, has drawn other publications to its flame, such as BZI, Ziar de Cluj or CorrectNews, obscure low-traffic websites, yet with effective Google indexation, as well as two TV stations, Realitatea TV and România TV, which entered a woozy race of “sensational revelations” and “breaking news”.
Ponzi schemes, arms trafficking, drugs and plush toys
In a nutshell, the information flow exposes a network of data and cyber equipment traffickers involved in the conflict in Ukraine, which supplied telecommunications equipment encrypted with ultra-sophisticated algorithms to both camps and financed its activity by selling teddy bears with Vladimir Putin’s face and other toys depicting the Russian president. The story also features a Ukrainian mercenary headhunter from Transnistria, hundreds of financial transactions in cryptocurrency, but also former Protection and Guard Service (SPP) colonel Gheorghe Truțulescu, the protagonist of the “Țigareta 2” inquiry, the most resounding corruption case of the ‘90s. Lacking the most basic evidence, aside from the Conspiracy101 stock phrase “my sources”, the investigation reveals the connection between international terrorists and arms and drug dealers, and a Romanian software company, CryptoData. The network’s power broker was allegedly no other than the former deputy head of the Romanian Intelligence Service, General Florian Coldea.
The company is accused of several transgressions and prevarications and is described as “the biggest vulnerability and threat to the national security of Romania and its partners”. CryptoData purportedly also implemented a project in several town halls and county councils and was developing a system suggestively dubbed “Cerberus” at the National Research and Development Institute for Laser, Plasma and Radiation Physics (INFLPR) in Măgurele. The “investigations” had even linked CryptoData with infamous pyramid schemes such as EncroChat and Karatbars, due to the fact that the criminal activity in both instances was tied to the use of technologies, more specifically data encryption, which is CryptoData’s field of operation. And, to provide a complete picture of CryptoData's misdoings, one investigation also leaked information about the non-compliant protection masks CryptoData had imported from China during the Covid pandemic, although the “investigator” was not able to say whom the masks were sold to and the price they asked.
Members of the “investigative committee”: people accused of playing into Russia’s hands and controversial journalists peddling fake news
The fabulous investigation carried out by Iosefina Pascal, who claims to have organized one of the first ever demonstrations protesting anti-Covid health safety measures, and who has since been fighting against the health dictatorship imposed by the secret cabal of world leaders preparing a perpetual pandemic, was taken over, developed and amplified by Anca Alexandrescu, who is better known to the public for the fine she received from the Audiovisual National Authority (CNA) for spreading fake news, rather than for her actual activity as a journalist, as well as by Victor Ciutacu, himself a recipient of CNA fines on multiple occasions, for the same practice of promoting fake news and disinformation. Starting February 26, the airing date of the first episode of Pascal’s “investigation”, the aforementioned champions of justice, employed by criminals and a controversial politician / analyst / consultant / businessman, whom the Romanian media describes as an associate / supporter / agent of influence of Russia (Cozmin Gușă), unleashed a deceptive whirlpool of rebukes, each more ludicrous than the other, citing a plethora of “confidential sources”, mainstream or niche media, as well as their private memories, seasoned with interpretations, correlations and associations of facts, people and places, whose criteria elude logic, all in a concerted action seemingly taken from a movie script. A late-comer to the chorus of criticism was Liviu Alexa, a weathered Transylvania-based journalist and Solidnews contributor, who over the years was behind genuine investigations and press revelations, such as the Pomohaci case, but who, in recent years, is waging a written war against virtually everyone, for reasons that are hard to grasp.
Debunking “my sources”: the “investigation” – a made-up and unverified story
The huge surprise, both to the public and the “investigators”, came on the morning of March 13, when, in a short video posted on YouTube, CryptoData CEO Ovidiu Toma revealed who "my sources” actually are. The news dropped like a bomb, rocking the very foundations of this exhilarating “investigation”. The entire public thus learned that “my sources” were in fact the very associates and employees of CryptoData, who wanted to teach a lesson to those who pose as deontologists and bearers of absolute truth. Caught with its pants down, the propaganda machine came roaring back more spiteful than before, in a desperate attempt to salvage its tainted image and mangle previous statements.
Nevertheless, to get a clearer chronology of the events, I requested a meeting with Ovidiu Toma, whose swift answer was accompanied with an invitation to the CryptoData headquarters, located in an office building on Pipera Boulevard. A discussion just shy of two hours followed, where we tried to spell out the answers to several questions related to the scandal, but also to the company's overall activity. In what follows, we will try to contrast the false arguments presented in the “investigation” with the statements of the CryptoData CEO, also examining the company's initiative to feed utterly false information to Iosefina Pascal and Anca Alexandrescu.
An overview of what CryptoData is and does and the company’s ties to secret services
From the very outset, the head of CryptoData was keen on drawing a distinction between cryptocurrencies and cryptography. In a language accessible even to a technology layman like me, Ovidiu Toma explained that blockchain, one of the most innovative technologies in this field, serves just as a support basis for the development of digital applications in a number of fields, one of which is, indeed, mining (creating) cryptocurrencies. On that point, Toma also confirmed the “incredible revelation” announcing that the company mined cryptocurrencies (especially Bitcoin and Etherium) in Buzău, explaining that this was the company’s field of activity and its main source of revenue at the time, promoted and marketed as such on all available communication channels. At the same time, the CryptoData CEO was baffled to see journalists interpret an extremely public piece of information as a “revelation”. At present, the CEO of CryptoData argues, the company has stopped mining cryptocurrencies, for financial and suitability reasons, focusing its attention instead on the research and development of applications based on blockchain technology, especially secure data transmissions between two or several terminals through the use of blockchain-generated encryption keys.
To that end, CryptoData has developed several “home use” products – laptops, mobile phones, smart watches, physical encryption keys, etc. At this point in the discussion, I wanted to find out Ovidiu Toma’s response to the alleged presence of these devices on the Ukrainian frontline, as the “investigation” claims. This was when Ovidiu Toma started addressing the “elephant in the room”.
“My sources” in action: how Iosefina Pascal and Anca Alexandrescu picked up and publicized information with zero fact-checking
The origin of the scandal can be traced to Dubai, where Ovidiu Toma went to attend the Untold festival. He was spotted sharing a table with Florian Coldea and other people by Anca Alexandrescu, also taking part in the event, who took the information public. Afterwards, the Solidnews website, which often quotes the Realitatea journalist, started publishing various articles referring to alleged ties between the people who had had a drink at that table. At first, Iosefina Pascal's approach seemed funny to Toma, who describes Anca Alexandrescu's remarks related to his table companions as pure comedy. But since things had started getting out of hand, and his name was associated with underworld clans, drug traffickers, pimps and foreign mercenaries, Ovidiu Toma devised a plan to expose the ridicule of the accusations brought against him. As a result, he used his private cell number to send a message to the SolidNews news desk, to the number displayed on the website, where he expressed his readiness to provide more information about the company, posing as an anonymous inside source, a whistleblower. He was contacted the same day by Iosefina Pascal. However, he decided to answer 24 hours later, saying he feared he might be exposed. He had previously acquired the domain reuters.uk.com, where he published a single article, written using the ChatGPT app, “detailing” the role that encrypted communications played in the war in Ukraine. The webpage in question is littered with clues that, to an investigative journalist, should have raised a few red flags. For instance, the website's header contains several fake, inactive buttons, the logo is a teddy bear, and the name of the reputable news agency appears in the Romanian phonetic transcription, “ROITĂRS”. The article abounds in false information, tying CryptoData to both camps engaged in the conflict, but also to Mossad, the Israeli secret service. Moreover, the cell phones produced by the company are set on the same footing as EncroChat terminals, spelled EncrowChat (twice), presented as a functional encryption tool, although the network itself was dismantled as early as four years ago. Despite all these indications, Iosefina Pascal chose to translate the article (in English, in the original) and publish it unaltered using her own name.
The string of revelations continues with Ovidiu Toma providing Iosefina Pascal with a link to a trivial case of undeclared customs goods, which the journalist turns into a complex espionage operation, coordinated from Bucharest. To support his argument, Toma also sent a photo, taken on the hallways of the company's headquarters in Pipera, in which several CryptoData laptops and phones appear alongside three toy guns, presented as evidence of goods seized from an unknown location by an unknown person. Iosefina Pascal describes these items as equipment used by mercenaries (just as before, she does not specify on whose side they are fighting). Next, the narrative sees the introduction of a new character, a so-called “Marian”, a Moldovan from Transnistria, in charge of recruiting mercenaries. In fact, “Marian” is an Indian businessman, the owner of an IT equipment store, where CryptoData products are also marketed. “My sources” also provide a number of contracts for the purchase of Putin toys, suggesting that the profits obtained thereof were used to finance the recruitment of mercenaries in Ukraine. Likewise, the article does not specify on whose side these mercenaries are supposed to fight, but the absence of such information does not impede the author from introducing false information into the article.
At the same time, the other associate at CryptoData, Bogdan Mărunțiș, provided “information” to Anca Alexandrescu, posing as one Călin Cvetkov, a close associate of CryptoData. The exchange between the two is ridiculous, bordering absurdity. Anca Alexandrescu does not question the validity of the information she receives, whether it concerns CryptoData's involvement in arms trafficking or dirty dealings in the MotoGP circuit, the motorcycling competition where CryptoData owned a stake as partner and sponsor of one of the teams for a short period of time. The “revelations” are then presented on live television as the product of an extensive, long-running journalistic investigation. What’s surprising is that, even after the “source” was exposed for what it truly was, Anca Alexandrescu chose to preserve an accusatory tone, invoking legal infringements while overlooking the fact that, for the time being, according to Dubai legislation, she committed a felony, namely she distributed in public the picture of another individual without consent.
Veridica asked Ovidiu Toma if CryptoData is in any way tied to the Romanian Intelligence Service, or if there are connections between CryptoData shareholders and Florian Coldea. The answer was no, CryptoData has never been associated with SRI and its shareholders have no personal or friendly relations with Florian Coldea.
Beyond the purpose of this article, Veridica is in no way connected to CryptoData. The present article is not designed to build a case for this company, but merely to put the spotlight on how easy a false information can be picked up, without prior validation and research, and turned into a disinformation narrative that fits a specific rhetoric. A piece of disinformation presented as “investigative reporting”.
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