A man suspected of involvement in two lucrative and related financial scams had made little effort to conceal the proceeds of the offences in the apparent belief he would never be caught, gardai believe.
The suspect, who has been arrested and released pending the completion of the investigation into him, is suspected of being centrally involved in a scam involving pandemic unemployment payments applied for in the name of several colleagues at a Dublin-based business.
It appears the details of a group of staff were accessed, unbeknownst to them or the company, and used to make multiple applications for PUP claims, which were paid over a prolonged period before the alarm was raised.
The payments, totalling €49,500, were paid into a series of bank accounts opened under false identities. Furthermore, when €120,000 was stolen from a business in an email-based scam, the money was run through the same bank accounts. While those accounts were opened under false identities, the photograph used was of the man who has been arrested.
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That man, who is in his 20s, was detained on Wednesday in Swords, Co Dublin, and was held for questioning before his release without charge was confirmed on Friday. The inquiry into his alleged role in the scam, and who he is believed to have been working with, was continuing.
Maze of bank accounts
The main suspect appears to have made little effort to conceal his activities. While the proceeds of frauds are generally moved quickly through a maze of bank accounts in several countries to frustrate law enforcement, the Dublin-based suspect retained money from the offences.
Gardaí suspect the purchase of a luxury car was funded, at least in part, by the fraud and that the purchase of a house the suspect was involved in was also being examined as part of the inquiry.
The suspect was detained under section 50 of the Criminal Justice Act during the search operation on Wednesday by the Garda National Economic Crime Bureau under Operation Skein, which mainly investigates cyber-enabled financial crimes. Gardaí on secondment at the Department of Social Protection assisted the operation.
During the search, a number of electronic devices — laptops and phones — were seized and the data held on them was due to undergo analysis. .
