By Imran Khan • 26 January 2023 • 15:28
Officers of the National Police in Spain have arrested a man who has allegedly defrauded a United States company of a total of $3,567,046 (€3,268,733 ) in the middle of the COVID-19 pandemic.
The man who is an administrator of a medical supplies company was arrested in Eivissa after the police accused him of not supplying masks for which he had already taken payment.
Police also accused him of taking advantage of the situation during the first months of the COVID-19 outbreak, when there was a global shortage of mask supplies in the market.
Officials also said that the man claimed to have sent a shipment of the nitrile gloves to the U. S., but the American company later confirmed it never received anything.
“The detainee promised to deliver a consignment of gloves to this American company for a total value of $6,824,604 (€6,253,862), but the material never reached its destination”, said a statement by the police, as cited by La Vanguardia.
They added, “The administrators of the scammed company tried to recover the money that had been paid by bank transfer, but after long efforts they only managed to recover 3.5 million dollars of the total paid”.
Authorities in Spain state that the funds were transferred to Chinese companies and to scammer accounts.
As per the police, “evidence has been found that part of the money obtained with the alleged fraud, approximately 3.5 million dollars, was diverted to the accounts of third-party individuals and legal entities and from there ended up in the personal account of the person being investigated”.
The rest of the funds obtained with the scam were transferred to Chinese companies, the police said.
Officials have now reported that the suspect has now been charged with the crimes of committing fraud and falsification of documents after the police also found fake bank documents.
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