JusMin to prosecutors: Follow money coming from crime, not only criminals, take everything stolen

The Minister of Justice, Catalin Predoiu, sent prosecutors a firm message in which he urges them to take the money of criminals, emphasizing that the coronavirus pandemic offers various opportunities to criminals to attack medical institutions. "Follow the money resulting from crimes, not only the criminals, take the money produced through crime, take everything they stole. It's the money of the Ministry of Finance," the minister of Justice told prosecutors. The message was sent, on Tuesday, at the opening of the "Investigating the ransomware-type attacks during the COVID-19 pandemic" webinar, an event organized by the Justice Ministry, in partnership with the Embassy of the United States of America in Bucharest, in collaboration with the Program in International Computer Hacking and Intellectual Property (ICHIP) of the US Department of Justice, the FBI, the Directorate to Combat Organized Crime (DCCO) of the Romanian Police General Inspectorate (IGPR) and the Bureau of International Narcotics and Law Enforcement Affairs of the US State Department. According to a release of the Ministry of Justice, in his opening, the US ambassador to Bucharest, Adrian Zuckerman, stated that the United States supports with all its resources the fight of the Justice Ministry to repair the prejudices produced to the rule of law in Romania. Furthermore, Adrian Zuckerman emphasized that the United States and President Trump salute all strongly moral and fair persons, adding that they will be together with the Romanian people, supporting them with all the available resources in their fight to protect the citizens of Romania and to maintain the rule of law. Catalin Predoiu had a firm message to all prosecutors in Romania: "Always place the phrase 'follow the money' as a primordial factor in investigation plans. Use all the means available to follow and recuperate the assets in our national jurisdiction and further." The practical part of the webinar, which saw the participation of specialized prosecutors and police staff from the DCCO, consisted of testing the reaction capacity of Romanian specialists in the realm of computer crime following the simulation of a computer attack on a public entity involved in managing the situation imposed by the coronavirus pandemic. "Criminals who pretend to sell medical equipment have obtained transfers from private companies or even from the public sector, meaning hospitals. Furthermore, they delivered falsified or dangerous medical products and obtained a substantial profit from this illicit activity. These illegal transfers are usually done fast, in several jurisdictions, and through the involvement of several bank accounts, in many cases evading the control of legal authorities due to the quickness of their action. Counteracting these actions requires the best use of legal instruments, from information exchange in due time to obtaining evidence which must be brought to court," Predoiu stated.AGERPRES(RO - author: Eusebi Manolache, editor: Georgiana Tanasescu; EN - author: Razvan-Adrian Pandea, editor: Maria Voican)

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