Raids in Bucharest City, five counties, in computer fraud case of public institutions in Romania, Spain

Prosecutors with the central department of the Directorate for Investigating Organized Crime and Terrorism (DIICOT), together with the Romanian Border Police Inspectorate General (IGPF) and the Romanian Police General (IGPR) are currently conducting 17 searches in Bucharest and in five counties in an operation to dismantle an organised crime group consisting of over 300 persons specialising in computer fraud, fraud and money laundering. According to IGPR and DIICOT, the criminal group would mislead employees of some public authorities in Romania and abroad, especially in Spain, public institutions or institutions of public interest about changes in bank accounts where payments related to unpaid invoices issued by their suppliers were to be made. After the amounts were collected, they were transferred to other group-controlled accounts and then illegally withdrawn. Other investigations in this case regard an over seven-million-euro money laundering operation. AGERPRES (RO - author: Eusebi Manolache, editor: Claudia Stanescu; EN - author: Corneliu-Aurelian Colceriu, editor: Adina Panaitescu)