Why Kopa believes this was a sophisticated scam

Kopa’s conclusion is based on the combined pattern, not merely on the failure of one lender. In Kopa’s view, the operation was sophisticated because it used the appearance and vocabulary of institutional banking—lengthy agreements, compliance personnel, escrow, SWIFT-style printouts, an issuing bank, a correspondent bank, a lender and certified legal documents—to build confidence and move the transaction through successive fee-release stages.

•      Substantial advance fees were secured before any usable funding was delivered.

•      The first release was justified by purported SWIFT evidence that Kopa says Barclays could not locate and later described orally as fake or not genuine.

•      When the SWIFT route failed, Balkan’s own paperwork converted the failure into a “request” by Kopa for hard-copy delivery.

•      Progress was made conditional on Kopa confirming those documents.

•      After the authenticity concern had been reported, Kopa was required to certify a sweeping statement that Balkan had fully performed.

•      The hard-copy product then failed the identified lender’s custody condition, while the chosen bank confirmed it did not provide that service.

•      Months of replacement-creditor discussions produced no funded facility before the guarantee approached expiry.

Kopa therefore believes the structure was designed, or at minimum operated, so that fees could be taken and retained while each practical failure was contractually transferred to Kopa, Barclays or the separate lender relationship. Balkan emphatically denies that conclusion and maintains that it delivered a valid guarantee and fully performed.

What happened when Kopa kept asking for answers

The post-payment contact record shows more than ordinary delay. Christian Nahaboo continued to send intermittent holding messages and repeatedly said that he would call, but the promised substantive contact frequently did not happen.

Between 27 March and 16 May 2026, WhatsApp records 52 voice calls and one video call placed by Alistair McPherson that were each marked “No answer.” No completed call is logged in that period. On 17 May, McPherson contemporaneously wrote that 52 calls had been ignored and that Nahaboo had promised to call back more than 60 times since they had last spoken. The export independently confirms the 52 unanswered voice calls plus the additional unanswered video call; the “more than 60” callback figure is McPherson’s contemporaneous count.

Kopa’s complaint is therefore not that Nahaboo literally sent no messages at all after payment. It is that, once the money had been paid and the funding route had failed, Kopa was repeatedly left chasing answers while receiving holding messages, missed commitments and no completed telephone discussion for this prolonged period.