In front of a new case of electronic fraud involving the victim Municipality of Crete The Anti-Counterfeiting Authority was found, known as Principle for money laundering.
Specifically, unknown perpetrators so far appear to have used particularly misleading, creating an e-mail address that referred to a banking institution. In this way they managed to direct large amounts of money to accounts of persons who were not the real beneficiaries.
This case is of particular interest, as according to the Authority's information, a first similar case of illegal transfer of funds from bank accounts - this time - of the Region of Crete, followed by a few days,
Two cases with common characteristics
In the first case, unknown perpetrators managed to extract from the service of the Region of Crete about 152,000 euros. The money was initially transferred to accounts held at a Greek banking institution and then, within a short period of time, was channelled into foreign bank accounts.
Transactions were carried out mainly at midnight and were large and small in amounts to make it difficult to identify the total movement of money. A total of around 55 successive transactions were carried out, a practice known as «partition» or «smurfing».
The Authority was immediately mobilised and, in collaboration with respective services abroad, has so far managed to identify and commit an amount exceeding half the money that had been the subject of fraud. The investigation into this case continues, aimed both at recovering more of the money and identifying persons behind the fraud.
New transfer around 500,000 euros
A few days later, the independent authority under the head of the Honorary Vice Prosecutor of the Supreme Court Charalambo Vourliotis was faced with a second case showing significant similarities to the first. According to information, only six days away and just before the end of August, a transfer of about 500,000 euros from a large Municipality of Crete to the same accounts was found.
This development immediately caused an alarm to the authorities, as the fact that the two cases present similar characteristics raises reasonable questions as to whether they were connected. The «microscope» There is now the possibility that there are common persons behind both cases, but also that criminal responsibilities may arise for those who may have had any involvement in the movement of money.
This is why the Greek Police have already been informed at the highest level in order to investigate all aspects of both cases.
Royal Bone
