Searches in Bucharest and three counties: gang of five suspects allegedly defrauded businessman of 605,000 euros
DIICOT and DGPMB executed 13 search warrants on Thursday in Bucharest, Slobozia, Brăila and Constanța. Five suspects are accused of deceiving a businessman and obtaining over 605,000 euros.
DIICOT case: group of five people accused of defrauding businessman of over 600,000 euros
Prosecutors from DIICOT executed 13 home search warrants on Thursday in Bucharest, Slobozia, Brăila, Constanța, the city of Amara and the communes of Cernica and Fundeni, according to G4Media. The action concerns a case of establishing an organised criminal group, fraud with particularly serious consequences and continuous concealment.
The searches were carried out with the support of police officers from the Directorate for Combating Organised Crime and the Brigade for Investigation of Economic and Financial Crime within the General Directorate of Police of Bucharest Municipality, as well as officers from the Special Intervention Brigade of the Gendarmerie.
Method of fraud: a 50 million dollar cheque issued by the USA
According to the criminal investigation documents, in the period September 2023 – September 2026, four men and one woman acted in coordination with the aim of obtaining large sums of money by deceiving a victim.
"Members of the gang proposed to the victim 'a business deal', in which the victim would help them with money, so that they could cash a supposed cheque issued by the United States of America, valued at 50,000,000 dollars, claiming that they needed to pay certain fees prior to cashing", investigators stated.
In exchange for these sums, the suspects requested the businessman's participation in their own company, by replacing certain associates. The promise was that, after the cheque was cashed, the victim would receive 1,500,000 dollars, and his company would additionally collect 1,000,000 dollars as the value of the shares taken over by the gang.
Damage: approximately 605,000 euros
Investigation established that, under the coordination of the gang's leader, its members used forged documents and instruments, as well as multiple communications, in order to keep the victim deceived and to determine him to remit sums of money repeatedly.
In total, the victim transferred approximately 605,000 euros: around 2,800,000 lei through bank transfers and 120,000 euros in cash.
Concealment network with nine other suspects
To disguise the origin of the funds, the female suspect from within the criminal group carried out multiple transfers to nine other suspects, all knowing that the money came from the commission of criminal offences, according to investigators.
Hearings are to take place at the headquarters of DIICOT – Central Structure.
Source: G4Media