- French and Belgium Authorities reportedly arrested 10 suspects on account of 6 million Euros large scale International fraud.
- Approximately 85 victims were defrauded.
- Specialized Interrogational Jurisdiction (JIRS) participates in the investigation.
Legal Authorities in France and Belgium with the support of Europol and Eurojust, have taken legal actions against Israeli criminal networks. As per reports, they had committed a large scale international fraud of Euros 6 million-selling bitcoins, gold, and other cryptocurrencies.
Measures Against Bitcoin Fraud in French and Belgium
According to the authorities, approximately 85 people were affected by this fraud. Authorities also informed that the Organized Criminal Group (OCG) was supposed to be operating from Israel. In total, 10 suspects were arrested in Belgium and France.
Reports suggest that OCG was approaching victims on a call, offering an impressive figure as the potential return on Bitcoin investment. Specifically, victims were promised a profit of 35% on their investment.
In order to cultivate trust, OCG gave small gains on its investment and insisted on investing further. More so, in the subsequent investments, they were defrauded and payment was not done.
Evidently, the victim’s payments were made to the fake company accounts, which were created by OCG. Subsequently, the profit was transferred via EU member state accounts to other accounts in Asia and Turkey.
In accordance with this fraud, an order dubbed “the European Investigation Order (EIO)” was issued to the authorities in Belgium, The United Kingdom, Hungary, Spain, CZR, and Portuguese to help in the investigation. It was also stated that authorities arrested 4 suspects on a similar case back in January this year. Moreover, Authorities in Luxembourg seized 1 million Euros.
Eurojust assisted the French and Belgium authorities to form a Joint Investigation Team (JIT) and oversee a coordination meeting. On the other side, Europol assisted in the international rogatory mission of French and Belgium magistrates to Israel. 7 major searches took place in cooperation with Israeli judicial police and almost 5 members were interrogated during the investigation.
This investigation was handled by specialized interrogational jurisdiction (JIRS) of Nancy and Belgium Federal Parquet, in partnership with the national police of France, the judicial police of Israel, and the federal police of Belgium.
