Earlier this month, Spanish authorities arrested a 50-year-old Croatian national for a multi-million-dollar investment fraud scheme. The arrest took place after a large-scale investigation involving four countries – Germany, the Netherlands, Spain, and Hungary.
The suspect allegedly ran a large-scale, multi-layered investment fraud scheme that defrauded over 70 German victims of more than €5 million ($4.99m). He posed as an employee of a real, Geneva-based investment company and persuaded his victims to invest their savings through lucrative investment companies. He even set up a fake website which was nearly identical to the real company’s website.
Additionally, the suspect tricked his victims by providing them all the necessary investment documents, that seemed to have been prepared by known banks and insurance companies. The unsuspecting investors wired their funds to bank accounts that the suspect controlled. The suspect then disappeared with the investors’ money and transferred the stolen funds from one country to another to conceal their true source.
Source: Europol