Cyprus police arrested a person on Tuesday as part of a 30-month European-wide crackdown on cyber crime, with Germany seeking the suspect’s extradition.
According to Eurojust, the European Union Agency for Criminal Justice Cooperation, an organised criminal group operating globally has defrauded more than 100 victims of over €3 mln through a fake online investment platform.
In a similar investigative report in March, the Organised Crime and Corruption Reporting Project (OCCRP), and its Cyprus partner, CIReN, revealed how thousands of investors lost their savings to international fraudsters.
Eurojust said that the latest investigation and the actions this week led to the dismantling of the criminal group through cooperation between German, Cypriot, Albanian, British and Israeli investigators, supported by Eurojust and Europol.
Using the method of cyber trading, the group was able to make considerable profits and defraud victims of their substantial savings.
The criminals created a fake online trading platform that promised large profits in a short period of time. After initially transferring modest sums of money to the platform, victims are then persuaded by fake charts that they will make large profits.
Exerting psychological pressure, fake brokers call their victims to convince them to transfer higher amounts to the platform. The money transferred by the victims is never invested and instead goes directly to the criminal group.
Authorities are aware of approximately 100 victims, but they believe more people have fallen victim to the OCG.
German authorities started investigating the fake platform after a married couple reported the scam to the police.
The initial investigation focused on the holder of the bank account to which the couple had transferred their savings. The authorities soon uncovered an international criminal group behind the fake investment platform.
On September 7, 2022 authorities searched multiple locations in Belgium and Latvia, arrested two suspects and seized important evidence. This evidence was instrumental in identifying seven more members of the criminal group, including the managers of the call centres used to convince victims to invest more money.
Simultaneous searches
The second action day took place on May 13 this year with a total of eight simultaneous searches in Albania, Cyprus and Israel, and executed six interrogations. During the searches, authorities seized evidence to continue the investigation such as electronic devices and documents as well as cash.
In coordinated action between the Attorney General’s Office, the Cyprus Police, and the Unit for Combating Money Laundering (MOKAS), a suspect in Cyprus was arrested with the intention of either surrendering or extraditing them to Germany. Investigations into the investment fraud will continue.
As victims were identified across the world and the group operated globally, international cooperation was essential.
Eurojust ensured that judicial authorities worked together smoothly and efficiently from the start of the investigation in 2022. For the second phase of the investigation this year, Eurojust facilitated all judicial cooperation requests and coordinated the action day from its headquarters in The Hague.
Europol provided operational support throughout the investigation, deploying mobile offices in Israel, Albania and the United Kingdom. A virtual command post was also set up by Europol to facilitate real-time coordination and intelligence sharing.
This operation was carried out as part of the European Multidisciplinary Platform Against Criminal Threats (EMPACT), that tackles the most important threats posed by organised and serious international crime affecting the European Union.
