The U.S. Department of Justice issued a press release stating that an alleged member of a transnational criminal group was arrested in Budapest, Hungary, in connection with an elaborate Internet scheme responsible for defrauding American citizens of over $350,000.
A federal grand jury returned an indictment charging a Bulgarian woman with conspiracy to commit wire fraud and conspiracy to commit money laundering. According to the indictment, from March to April 2006, the woman and others allegedly participated in a scheme to advertise merchandise for sale on the eBay Web site, including expensive motor vehicles and boats. When the U.S. victims expressed interest in the merchandise, they were contacted directly by an email from a purported seller. The victims were then instructed to wire transfer payments through "eBay Secure Traders" - an entity which has no actual affiliation to eBay but was used as a ruse to persuade the victims that they were sending money into a secure escrow account pending delivery and inspection of their purchases. Instead, the victims' funds were allegedly wired directly into one of several bank accounts in Hungary or Slovakia controlled by the woman and her co-conspirators.
"This arrest is an excellent example of the strong cooperation between the FBI and Hungarian National Bureau of Investigation (HNBI) to stem Eurasian organized crime," said FBI Assistant Director Chip Burrus, Criminal Investigative Division. "Since April 2000, the FBI - HNBI Organized Crime Task Force has worked closely to investigate transnational enterprises headquartered in this historic Central European center of commerce and finance."
