Hungary catches Israeli-led money laundering ring red-handed
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The 48-year-old Israeli ring leader has scammed people in tens of countries around the world.
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Hungary catches Israeli-led money laundering ring red-handed
On Monday, Hungarian police said they busted an international Israeli-led money-laundering ring based in Hungary. A 48-year-old Israeli man is the head of the ring and has cheated people in tens of countries around the world through online investment frauds.
About $47 million, give and take, were transferred from 94 companies set up by the ring, according to Peter Farkas, Budapest police spokesperson.
The gang was led by an Israeli man whose residence is in Hungary, who is also 1 of 5 suspects arrested during coordinated raids on May 9 across the country.
The fraud schemes, which were mostly online, were related to "account-switching" and cryptocurrency investments, according to Farkas, who was addressing a press conference where seized phones, laptops, and 250 SIM cars were on display. Even cars and jewelry were also seized.
"Investments with good returns were promised to people who then transferred monies to over 400 fraudulent bank accounts," he said, also revealing that countries, where money was laundered, were mainly to the east of Hungary.
Of the 44 million euros that were laundered, police have recovered about 1.8 million euros.
