An investigation by the Civil Guard of Jaén has concluded with the arrest in Madrid capital, Valdemoro and Valladolid, of three people accused of a macro scam perpetrated through a website that offered to carry out official procedures. In addition to those arrested, another 12 people are being investigated for their alleged connection with this scam valued at nearly eight million euros.
Those detained and investigated are charged with the crimes of fraud, intrusion, usurpation of public functions, money laundering, misappropriation and membership in a criminal organization.
The agents estimate that there are a total of 150,000 affected people from whom this organization has managed to defraud an amount close to eight million euros. The procedures offered on the fraudulent page ranged from the issuance of registration certificates, criminal offenses, work life, European health card, to foreigner identification number procedures, among others.
The amounts paid by people requesting these procedures ranged between 19 and 89 euros per procedure. Because they were small payments, the victims—generally—decided not to file a complaint or claim administratively.
The dismantled portal was created emulating other official administration pages, using the same font, official lettering, logos and flags. With this appearance of a public entity, they offered the online processing of these procedures, which in reality are completely free.
The events began during confinement, taking advantage of the fact that online procedures with the different administrations multiplied exponentially. The investigation began in the town of Baeza (Jaén) after a complaint from a citizen who had been scammed when requesting a registration certificate on a website, paying an amount of money for that procedure that he never received and, of course, never was carried out.
After the exploitation of the operation called Gestoko, one million euros have been intervened and blocked in the organization’s bank accounts, 111 real estate properties, as well as 13 vehicles acquired with the money from the illicit activity.
A network of 35 companies and societies were being used as a screen for laundering the benefits obtained from fraud. To do this, they made a multitude of bank transfers between them with the aim of giving the appearance of real and legal activity, making it difficult to trace the money.
Through more than 400 bank accounts of 18 different entities, national and international, agents have detected the evasion of approximately 1.5 million euros destined for bank accounts in the United States.
The investigation has been carried out by agents of the Civil Guard of the Jaén Command, with support from the economic crimes group of the Central Operational Unit (UCO).
