The Special Prosecutor's Office Against Organized Crime and Corruption held a press conference this Thursday morning, where, alongside their Italian counterparts, they announced the crackdown on a structured criminal group dealing with online fraud of Italian citizens. The call center located in Tirana, on "Dritan Hoxha" street, is suspected of having received an amount of up to 4.7 million euros from injured persons in Italy.
SPAK announces that a total of 14 arrest warrants have been issued as a result of the operation. The investigation which revealed the fraudulent scheme was the result of 140 reports made in Italy by the injured persons. But where were these 4.7 million Euros sent and cleared? The prosecutor of SPAK, Eneid Nakuçit raised his hands saying that they do not know where these amounts have been laundered.
“Maybe in Latvia, Lithuania… They are untraceable when transferred to Bitcoin. What is possible, is not determined after the conversion from euro to Bitcoin, these funds cannot balance. It was not possible in the investigation. It is the transnational factor. It is about other countries. The money was not in Albania, but in Italy. Then they were transferred to other countries," he said.
Even the Italian prosecutor said the same thing. "We have not built the scheme completely. But an Albanian citizen is being investigated for laundering and we think that this person is involved in this event. Surely a part of this money could be brought to Albania, because these people did not work for free. But the investigations are still in the stage... but they are very difficult. "Cryptocurrency is often used to hide income," she said.