European and US officials said on Thursday that 20 people had been arrested in several countries, including Latvia, for participating in an international network that had laundered millions of euros stolen by cybercriminals.
Six people were detained in Latvia.
The international police operation, led by Portuguese investigators and the US Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI), took place under the supervision of the European Police Organization Europol and covered 15 European countries.
Europol announced that the operation had searched more than 40 homes in Spain, Italy, Bulgaria and Latvia.
Most searches were carried out in Latvia, where six people were detained. Six more were detained in Britain, four in Spain and one each in Portugal, Poland, the United States and Australia, Europol said.
The Pennsylvania Western District Jury on Thursday charged indicted 14 people, eight of whom are Latvian citizens – Martin Ignatiev, Dmitry Kuzminov, Valentin Sevec, Dmitry Slapin, Armen Vecel, Thomas Trechinken, Ruslan Sharkapek, and Silvlan Sharapov. The other six defendants are two Georgian and Bulgarian nationals and one Romanian and a Belgian national.
In October 2019, within the framework of this case, charges were brought against five Latvian citizens – Aleksejs Trofimovics, Ruslan Nikitenko, Arturs Zaharevics, Denis Ruseckis and Deinis Gorenko.
One suspect – Maxim Boyko, a Russian citizen – was detained during a visit to the United States at the end of March 2020, bringing the number of defendants to 20.
Parallel criminal proceedings will take place in the United States, Portugal, the United Kingdom and Spain.
Detained suspects in the US have been charged with conspiracy to launder money stolen from victims of computer fraud in the US and civiet.
The indictment says the QQAAZZ network has laundered or attempted to launder tens of millions of dollars stolen from cybercrime victims since 2016.
QQAAZZ members have managed to open bank accounts using genuine and forged Polish and Bulgarian identity documents to create and register dozens of shell companies that were not in business. Using registration documents, QQAAZZ members then opened bank accounts for legal entities in many financial institutions around the world.
The QQAAZZ network has laundered the money stolen by cybercriminals by transferring it between hundreds of accounts in banks around the world. The network includes citizens of Russia, Latvia, Georgia, Bulgaria, Romania and Belgium, the US Department of Justice said. The network has laundered money stolen from victims in the United States and European countries.
“This operation has shown that with such cooperation, we can collectively fight the global nature of cybercrime. It is the only way forward,” said Carlos Cabreir, director of the Portuguese National Cybercrime Unit.
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