The FBI said 42 suspects were nabbed in the U.S, 29 in Nigeria, and three others in Canada, Mauritius, and Poland.
Some of those arrested were working as part of a larger network of criminal organisations, while others acted alone, FBI said.The operation was announced in a statement endorsed by US Attorney General, Jeff Sessions for the Department of Justice and FBI Director, Christopher A. Wray.
It reads in part: “Operation Wire Wire, a coordinated law enforcement effort by the U.S. Department of Justice, U.S. Department of Homeland Security, U.S. Department of the Treasury and the U.S. Postal Inspection Service, was conducted over a six month period, culminating in over two weeks of intensified law enforcement activity resulting in 74 arrests in the United States and overseas, including 29 in Nigeria, and three in Canada, Mauritius and Poland.
“The operation also resulted in the seizure of nearly $2.4 million, and the disruption and recovery of approximately $14 million in fraudulent wire transfers.Business Email Compromise, BEC, also known as “cyber-enabled financial fraud,” is a sophisticated scam often targeting employees with access to company finances and businesses working with foreign suppliers and/or businesses that regularly perform wire transfer payments.
“The same criminal organizations that perpetrate BEC also exploit individual victims, often real estate purchasers, the elderly, and others, by convincing them to make wire transfers to bank accounts controlled by the criminals.
“Those individuals are often members of transnational criminal organizations, which originated in Nigeria but have spread throughout the world. Fraudsters can rob people of their life’s savings in a matter of minutes.
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