Five Southern California residents have been arrested for their alleged role in a fraud scheme that stole more than €300 million from victims in Germany.
The suspects are accused of creating a scheme that targeted their victims with millions of recurring debit and credit card charges amounting to less than 50 euros (about 57 US dollars) to avoid any detection or suspicion.
The charges were linked to fictitious or non-existent companies, and used fake websites that could only be accessed via direct links or URLs, according to the US Department of Justice.
“The network operators then colluded with German payment service processors — including executives and compliance officers — to process these payments,” Justice Department officials said. “Former employees and executives at German payment processors are among those arrested.”
German authorities said the complex and widespread fraud scheme defrauded more than 300 million euros (about 347 million US dollars) from victims and created a financial system that remained in Germany.
On November 5, federal officials announced the arrest of five SoCal residents by U.S. Marshals in connection with the case:
- Medhat Mourid, of Woodland Hills
- Andrew Garrone, from Los Angeles
- Guy Mizrahi, of Agoura Hills
- Ardeshir Akhavan, from Irvine
- Tunde Benack, of Irvine
The Justice Department said the American suspects were detained “concurrently with arrests and/or searches in Germany, Italy, Luxembourg, Spain, Cyprus, the Netherlands, the United Kingdom, Canada, and Singapore.”
After their first court appearance in the United States, the suspects are expected to be extradited to Germany for trial, officials said.