An international operation in which the Judiciary Police took part dismantled a criminal structure that laundered more than 38 million euros, of which around three million passed through Portugal.
In a statement, the Judiciary Police (PJ) explains that, in Portugal, the organization set up four companies, opened 17 bank accounts in different credit institutions and used three false identities.
In the Portuguese investigation, three million euros have been seized in Portugal to date, as well as various computer and telecommunications equipment.
According to the PJ, the victims were companies and natural persons domiciled in France.
In the note released today, the PJ explains that the “modus operandi” – known as CEO or BEC Fraud – consisted of the “intrusion of the victims’ computer systems”, inducing them, by mistake, to transfer large sums of money to bank accounts opened in Portugal on behalf of fictitious companies, some incorporated using false documentation.
The international police operation, in which the PJ participated through the National Unit to Combat Cybercrime and Technological Crime – UNC3T, was carried out in two phases: the first in mid-2022 and the second at the beginning of this year.
The police operation carried out in France was led by the Direction Régionale de Police Judiciaire de Paris and the Gendarmerie Nationale de Reins, under the coordination of Europol, and had the active participation of the PJ, “which sent officers to that country to collaborate in the operation”.
It also had the collaboration of the National Police of Spain and the police of Israel, Croatia and the Hungarian Democratic Republic.
During the operation, several search and arrest warrants were served, four of which (two house searches and two European arrest warrants) issued by the Portuguese judicial authority.