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Lithuanian Pleads Guilty To Stealing $100 Million From Google, Facebook (bleepingcomputer.com)
schwit1 writes: Evaldas Rimasauskas, a Lithuanian citizen, concocted a brazen scheme that allowed him to bilk Facebook and Google out of more than $100 million. The crime defrauded Google of $23 million and Facebook of $99 million. Rimasauskas committed the crimes between 2013 to 2015, an indictment was issued in 2017, and he was formally indicted Wednesday in New York after he pleaded guilty to wire fraud, aggravated identity theft, and three counts of money laundering.
"As Evaldas Rimasauskas admitted today, he devised a blatant scheme to fleece U.S. companies out of over $100 million, and then siphoned those funds to bank accounts around the globe," said U.S. Attorney Geoffrey S. Berman in a DoJ press release. How did he do it? The indictment reveals that he simply billed the companies for the amounts and they paid the bills. Rimasauskas was able to trick company employees into wiring the money to multiple bank accounts that he controlled and had set up in institutions in Cyprus, Lithuania, Hungary, Slovakia, and Latvia.
"As Evaldas Rimasauskas admitted today, he devised a blatant scheme to fleece U.S. companies out of over $100 million, and then siphoned those funds to bank accounts around the globe," said U.S. Attorney Geoffrey S. Berman in a DoJ press release. How did he do it? The indictment reveals that he simply billed the companies for the amounts and they paid the bills. Rimasauskas was able to trick company employees into wiring the money to multiple bank accounts that he controlled and had set up in institutions in Cyprus, Lithuania, Hungary, Slovakia, and Latvia.
With that much money you'd think he could afford a new identity in a country without extradition.
You don't screw the largest American businesses and get away with it. The United States has ways of making any country you flee to see the wisdom of handing you over. Many Russians and others who thought they were untouchable were arrested and extradited while on holiday in countries they either didn't know or didn't believe would cooperate with American authorities. The United States provides generous foreign aid to just about every country in the world. When the phone rings and it's the American Government on the line, these countries take the call and returning past favors by handing over a foreigner is a very cost effective way for them to demonstrate their gratitude and respect for their American patrons.