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Gardaí, who investigates a major Irish-based and overseas criminal network that defrauded millions of euros from victims of invoice redirection fraud, arrested three men in Dublin.
Members of the Garda National Economic Crimes Office carried out searches at three properties in Dublin early Tuesday morning and arrested three men, all in their 20s, and from Nigeria, Ireland and Romania.
The operation was part of Operation Hank, under which five arrests had already been made before the latest searches on Tuesday morning.
The criminals investigated are all members of a network of people, all with different roles, involved in scamming people and companies by sending them false invoices.
Gardaí believes that the scam is run by Nigerian criminals, based in Ireland and abroad, and many Italian and Romanian suspects were also identified during the investigation.
The Irishman arrested Tuesday morning was detained on suspicion that he had indeed rented or sold his bank account to the gang so they could receive money from the victims of his fraud.
The Nigerian arrested on Tuesday is believed to be close to the main suspect in the case, also from Nigeria, whose home was searched by Gardaí earlier this year, although he has not been arrested to date.
Gardaí suspects that the Romanian arrested on Tuesday is indeed a middle manager in the company, since he is suspected of recruiting and organizing “money mules”, those people who agree to cede control of their bank accounts to criminals.
The arrests occurred in the city center south of Dublin, Finglas in the north of Dublin and in Dublin 8. The men were detained at Kevin Street and Pearse Street Garda stations in central Dublin.
They were detained under article 50 of the Criminal Justice Act, which allows their detention without charge for up to seven days and is used when investigating suspects for alleged organized crime.
Operation Skein has escalated in recent months, with three suspects arrested in October, following two other suspects earlier this year, as evidence has been discovered that some 4 million euros have been moved through bank accounts. in Ireland, all related to invoice redirection fraud.
Invoice redirection fraud involves criminal gangs tricking companies into depositing money into accounts controlled by criminals. They send invoices to companies that supposedly come from one of the business partners of the target companies.
To successfully carry out a fraud, that gang often uses information about both companies that they have obtained through hacking or from the companies’ websites or social media accounts.
When the invoice is paid, the money is transferred to a bank account controlled by the scammers rather than the account of the legitimate company to which the money is owed. Scammers gain control of accounts by opening them under false identities or by paying the account holder for access to their account for the purpose of receiving and transferring money.
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