Lithuanian job: Fraud Investigation in Latvia
Fraud in Latvia by Lithuanian citizen
Man arraigned for $100M Google and Facebook scam.
Fraud Investigation in Latvia | Lithuania perpetrated by a lithuanian citizen. Evaldas Rimasauskas of Lithuania set up a company in Latvia, in the city of Daugavpils, registered company to a residential address, naming it after an Asian computer hardware company with which the two internet giants have accounts. Rimasauskas then allegedly sent out phishing emails to Google and Facebook, who regularly had multimillion-dollar deals with the Asian company, saying they owed the fake company money. Other sources say these messages – phishing emails i.e. sent from false, but believable looking addresses contained instructions to pay for the supply of Quanta Computer Inc to accounts already owned by the Latvian company Quanta Computer Inc SIA in Latvian and Cypriot banks.
Already at this stage a simple background check in Latvia and Lithuania might have identified the strong red flag pattern. We always suggest conducting due diligence or a background check before major transactions. Vendor background check | procurement review | investigation in Latvia | Lithuania | Estonia |Greece | Romania | Belarus | Ukraine cost reasonable money but may be very useful in the decision making process.
Background check with on site visit | corporate analysis | risk assessment | red flags identification | conducted by professional investigators and fraud prevention specialists could have been a much easier solution in this case. Frankly, re-reading the article from various media including US Justice Department and local Latvian and Lithuania media makes us wonder, why no procurement review | why no KYC | why no check your vendor | why no common sense. The answer may be very simple: lack of communication, irresponsible attitude towards job duties and maybe even natural indifference – we call it Ostrich Approach.
When the money arrived in the bogus accounts, Rimasauskas dispersed the funds to other accounts in Latvia, Cyprus, Slovakia, Lithuania, Hungary and Hong Kong, prosecutors said. This went on for two years from 2013 to 2015 and Rimasauskas made $100 million in the process, prosecutors allege.
“At his arraignment Rimasauskas said through a Russian interpreter, “I am not guilty your honor,” but he did not seek bail and will remain in federal custody”.
In the result of investigation, the 48-year-old is charged with wire fraud, money laundering and aggravated identity theft and faces up to 42 years in prison if convicted on all charges.
Outside of court Rimasauskas’ lawyer, Robert Peabody said, “We will follow the procedural run of the case and make sure he gets a good defense.”
A spokes man for Google said, “We detected this fraud against our vendor management team and promptly alerted the authorities. We recouped the funds and we’re pleased this matter is resolved.” Reps at Facebook declined to comment but they had previously stated they too had recovered the majority of the stolen funds.
Reference: www.nypost.com www.theguardian.com www.lsm.lv
Related services: background check | due diligence | risk assessment
