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Europol says it has dismantled a Franco-Israeli criminal network involved in France’s largest-ever “CEO swindle”. Six people have been arrested in France and two in Israel thanks to a Europe-wide investigation.
The criminal network, made up of French and Israeli nationals, used a pre-existing money laundering scheme involving multiple bank accounts in the EU, China and Israel, according to Europol.
They used the so-called “CEO swindle” which involves impersonating the CEO of a company to convince employees to carry out unauthorised money transfers.
The case began in December 2021 when a fraudster passing himself off as the lawyer asked the accountant of Sefri-Cime real estate developer in Paris to make a large, urgent and confidential transfer.
To gain extra credibility, accountants would receive an email using the hacked CEO’s identity confirming the operation had been authorised.
More than 40 transfers were carried out in this way over several weeks, amounting to a total of €38mn – a record in France.
€700,000 was in cryptocurrency.
Also in December 2021, a metallurgy company in the north-eastern France was tricked into transferring €300,000 to a bank in Hungary, using a similar modus operandi.
Investigations into the transfer of funds took place all over Europe, notably Spain, Portugal, Coratia and Hungary where the funds transitted via different accounts using fake identities and fictitious companies.
The six suspects in France, arrested in June 2022 and January 2023, have been released without charge for the moment, the Paris prosecutor said on Friday.
No request for the extradition of the two suspects in Israel has been made so far, according to a source close to the case.
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