«The crooks worked thoughtfully and methodically»
Europol helped to detain fraudsters who robbed millionaires. The head of the International Bureau of Investigation, Juris Doctor, Honored Lawyer of Russia, Professor, Lieutenant General of the Ministry of Internal Affairs Yuri Zhdanov described how the super crooks operated.
Photo: europol.europa.e
– Yuri Nikolayevich, Europol has, in fact, reveal the scam of the century, which was a serial one?
– In fact, yes. You must agree that it is not every day that they get into the pockets of the richest people in Europe, or even the world. And not for a trifle, but for millions of euros. And this went on for several years, the crooks worked thoughtfully and methodically.
– How was it going?
– An organised criminal group carried out classic scams involving fraudulent transactions. Their victims were millionaires wishing to invest or sell real estate. The criminals outsourced money for «laundering» to two other criminal networks. And these networks recruited «money mules» — people who received money from a third party into their bank account and transferred it to another account or withdrew it in cash, passing it on to someone else in exchange for a commission.
– Didn’t these unfortunate millionaires realise that they were being scammed? It seems that there are no simpletons among this audience.
– Everything was furnished very beautifully, according to all the laws of art. The scammer lured a victim interested in investing or selling real estate by pretending to be the owner of an international investment fund. Meetings were arranged in luxurious restaurants or hotels. In the course of dialogue, trust was gained and a deal was made.
The fraud, of course, took place during the payment. And this is where the fraudsters applied some know-how — they used cryptocurrencies and various applications. They instructed their victims how to download these applications to manage cryptocurrencies.
As soon as millionaires installed the app, criminals immediately used sophisticated technical tools to take control of their cryptocurrency wallets. And only when payments were made using these apps that victims realised that all funds had disappeared from their cryptocurrency wallets.
– So how did these fraudsters manage to figure out?
– Europol warned about this trend in its report exposing the most dangerous criminal networks in the European Union. As a result, the investigators took an atypical path – they did not immediately look for the actual organizers of the scam, but pulled the string of the «money mules».
The fact is that the main actors lacked the technical expertise to launder their profits, which exceeded 10 million euros. So, they delegated part of the process to external service providers. In this way, another criminal business model was formed – «crime as a service».
– How long did the investigation last?
– Two years. In general, a large-scale operation against two networks of «money mule» recruiters working for a criminal organisation involved in cryptocurrency fraud was carried out by the Italian and Portuguese authorities. Europol actively supported this operation. Therefore, law enforcement agencies of Austria, France, Germany, Romania, Spain, and Switzerland, as well as Eurojust, were involved in the investigation.
During the investigation, Europol provided comprehensive support to law enforcement agencies — providing analytical reports and crypto-tracking for investigators in the field.
The European Police Agency also brought together investigators to establish the operational picture and prepare days of action. A team of Europol experts was sent to Italy to exchange information between the countries involved in the investigation and to provide ongoing forensic support on site. Eurojust supported the investigation by ensuring cooperation between the judicial authorities involved in the operation, the implementation of European investigation orders, the issuance of European arrest warrants and the freezing of assets.
Coordination meetings at Eurojust helped the authorities to exchange information and prepare for the «Day of Action».
– When did that day come?
– Just recently, on 21st and 27th May, a series of raids were carried out in France, Italy and Romania. As a result, 11 people were detained, including the organisers of the money laundering scheme. Law enforcement authorities conducted fifteen house searches and seized several electronic devices, a lot of jewellery and cryptocurrencies.
The main criminals involved in the scam were family members originally from the Balkans, although most of them were based in France. Crypto-tracking analyses conducted by investigators and supported by Europol revealed that two other money laundering groups with different nationalities and geographic locations were linked to the main criminal group.
Author: ANDREI YASHLAVSKY
