Takedown of online investment fraud in Albania: 15 arrests
With support from Eurojust, authorities in Albania and Germany have taken down a fraudulent online investment platform that defrauded victims, including many Germans, of at least several million euros. During a recent action day, 15 suspects were arrested and eight places were searched in Tirana, Albania.
The suspects used companies running call centres in Albania. Beginning in 2018, the perpetrators managed two fraudulent electronic platforms, ‘BrokerZ’ and ‘Globalix’, which lured victims in Germany into investing in non-existent financial products that promised large benefits. Among those arrested is one of the alleged leaders of the scam.
During the searches in Albania, servers, various IT equipment, documents and other related materials were seized. A German prosecutor as well as law enforcement officers from Germany participated in the action day in Albania. Eurojust assisted in the coordination of the cross-border judicial cooperation in this case, including support to execute the request for Mutual Legal Assistance from Germany to Albania.
Albania is one of the ten third countries that currently have Liaison Prosecutors at Eurojust. In addition to Albania, these countries are Georgia, Montenegro, North Macedonia, Norway, Serbia, Switzerland, Ukraine, the United States and the United Kingdom.
The following authorities took part in the operation:
- Albania: Special Prosecution Office against Corruption and Organized Crime of Tirana; Unit “C” of the General Directorate of Albanian State Police
- Germany: Bavarian Central Office for the Prosecution of Cybercrime at the Bamberg General PPO; Criminal Investigation Departments Bayreuth and Oberfranken
