Spanish authorities, along with Europol and their international partners, have arrested five suspects in a major operation targeting a 460 million euro crypto fraud network.
On June 25, Spanish Guardians, supported by law enforcement partners in Estonia, France, France and the US, carried out a coordinated raid that led to the arrest of five individuals in one of Europe’s largest crypto fraud businesses to date. Three arrests were made in the Canary Islands, and two were made in Madrid.
The group is said to have been run through a network of salespeople around the world. They raised funds from victims through cash withdrawals, bank transfers and crypto transport. According to investigators, the criminal network has scamended more than 5,000 victims around the world and washed an estimated 460 million euros of illegal profits.
Investigators believe the organization has set up complex corporate and banking networks based in Hong Kong, using payment gateways and accounts opened under different names on various crypto exchanges. The system allowed authorities to receive, store and move criminal proceeds while making it difficult for them to track their money. The investigation is still underway.
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A similar, albeit small, but similar cases were discovered a few weeks ago when a coalition of authorities from Germany, Cyprus, Albania, the UK and Israel dismantled an Euro 3 million online investment fraud scheme with support from Eurojust and Europole. The group ran a fake trading platform and used psychological tactics through fake brokers to persuade victims to invest an increased amount, but they were not actually traded.
Europol’s serious and organized crime threat assessment, released in March, identifies online fraud as one of the main threats to the EU’s internal security. Furthermore, Europol expects online fraud to quickly outperform other forms of organized crime caused by increased use of AI.
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