Latvia and Lithuania detain 108 over multi-million euro call centre scam

With the support of Europol and Eurojust, the Latvian State Police (Valsts policija) and the Lithuanian Police (Lietuvos Policija) have detained over 100 people in Riga and Vilnius on suspicion of being involved in an international call centre scam. 

On 24 and 25 March hundreds of officers, including special intervention teams, raided a total of three call centres belonging to the same organised crime group. Its members are accused of defrauding victims across the world.

Under their orders, an army of up to 200 fake ‘traders’, speaking English, Russian, Polish and Hindi, would call unsuspecting victims to persuade them to part with their savings, promising lucrative investment opportunities. However, the investments in bitcoin, commodities and foreign currencies were all fake. 

According to preliminary calculations, the suspects arrested are believed to have turned an illegal profit of over EUR 3 million per month with this scam. 

The coordinated strike against them resulted in:

• 80 people detained in Latvia and 28 detained in Lithuania;
• Seizure of cash, bank accounts and luxury vehicles;
• EUR 95 000 in cryptocurrencies seized. 

Europol’s European Financial and Economic Crime Centre supported the investigation from the onset by bringing together the national investigators from Latvia and Lithuania to establish a joint strategy and to organise the intensive exchange of evidence needed to prepare for final phase of the investigation. Europol experts from both its European Financial and Economic Crime Centre and European Cybercrime Centre were deployed to Latvia and Lithuania to assist the national authorities with the action days. 

Eurojust supported by setting up a joint investigation team (JIT) into the case within one week and organising a rapid coordination meeting. Further assistance was given with the execution of a European Investigation Order during the action day.