The authorities in Moldova busted a network of forex investment fraud that has resulted in the detainment of 24 people. The prosecutors are now in the process of criminal proceedings under charges of money laundering .
Officially announced on Wednesday, the operation against the fraudulent operation was conducted jointly by the anti-corruption prosecutors and NAC officers. They raided dozens of workplaces of the criminal network before bringing in the detainees.
The alleged perpetrators have victimized hundreds of people from Moldova, Russia and Kazakhstan. The fraudulent scheme received more than €1.5 million in deposits from the victims, many of who deposited tens and hundreds of thousands of euros into the fraudulent scheme.
According to the officials, the network of fraudsters operated for the last two years. They established a company in Cyprus with a representative office in Chișinău, Moldova.
The suspects approached the victims disguising themselves as the representatives of the Moldovan subsidiary of an existing Russian financial market company. They offered advisory services in the financial market, promising profitable investments even in the forex market.
When the investors found out about the bogus nature of the investment scheme, the alleged fraudsters closed all communication channels. They even changed phone numbers and took down other platforms used for contact.
A Long Operation
The two dozen people were detained after several months of investigation against the criminal activity. Additionally, the authorities tracked down the financial trail of the network through bank accounts in Cyprus, the United Kingdom and South Korea.
Moreover, the network of fraudsters tried to disguise the source of the funds through the transactions. They brought the money into Moldova “for the payment of salaries and taxes.”
However, such forex investment scams are not new as fraudsters often lure victims with the promise of high returns. Recently, Thailand's police arrested 24 people, a mix of Chinese and Thai nationals, for running an organized fraudulent investment network.
