Filenews 16 April 2024 - by Fanis Makrides
The effort to dismantle a fraud ring with international activity and a turnover of €645 million did not leave Cyprus and more specifically the prosecuting authorities of our state uninvolved.
A police operation last Thursday, involving 400 law enforcement officers from 11 countries and supported by Europol and Eurojust, resulted in the arrest of nine people and the freezing of large sums of money obtained illegally in the context of a financial fraud with a "pyramid" of investors (Ponzi scheme) for the alleged production of medicinal cannabis.
The circuit also left traces in Cyprus. Reliable information of "F" reports that following a request for assistance from other countries and an investigation conducted by the Unit for Combating Cover-up Offences (MOKAS), accounts with amounts of money were found on our island, which were the product of illegal actions in the context of this international fraud.
More specifically, our information indicates that MOKAS committed a total amount of €4 million. Suffice it to note that last Thursday the international operation resulted in the freezing or freezing of the following assets in various countries: €4.7 million; in bank deposits, €1,515,000 in cryptocurrencies, €106,000 in cash and €2.6 million. in real estate.
According to estimates, the total loss of investors from fictitious investments in a crowdfunding platform for the cultivation of medicinal cannabis amounts to €645 million, however, they do not exclude that the frauds that took place and were not reported to the law enforcement authorities correspond to a much larger amount.
Most of the defrauded out of a total of 550,000 participants in the "investment" are European citizens, who registered as online investors, using bank transfers or cryptocurrencies for their transactions.
According to an official update from Europol, suspects from Russia, the Netherlands, Germany, Italy, Latvia, Malta, Poland, Jordan, the US and Venezuela, since the beginning of 2020 have used advertisements on social networks to attract victims to their websites. These platforms were supposed to offer promising investment funding opportunities in the cultivation, harvesting, and distribution of cannabis plants for medicinal purposes.
With a minimum investment of €50, the organizers of the ring promised potential victims that they would contact medical cannabis producers. By purchasing a cannabis plant, the platforms gave assurances to financiers that they would soon receive high profits from selling marijuana to legal/licensed dealers. While the company guaranteed a return on 100% of the investment, it did not disclose how this would be done.
Initially, more than 500,000 investors received the return on investment. In July 2022, however, the criminal group abruptly removed the companies' profiles from social networks and did not allow users to log into their accounts, thus "blocking" cash withdrawals.
Following complaints from deceived investors across Europe, Europol organised a coordinated investigation. One of the main high-value targets in the search effort was found at a residence in the Dominican Republic. He is a Russian national who was the subject of a search warrant by a team of Spanish police officers and a Europol expert.
According to an official note, Europol supported this massive cross-border investigation from the outset, taking the lead in operational coordination and providing tailor-made analytical support.
