On 15th October 2020 Europol announced the arrest of 20 individuals suspected of belonging to the QQAAZZ criminal network following an international law enforcement operation involving the UK’s National Crime Agency (NCA).
NCA Investigation | Rosenblatt’s Financial Crime Team
The NCA announced it had arrested six men as part of the investigation, with a further 14 arrests made in Europe, the USA and Australia. QQAAZZ is suspected of laundering tens of millions of euros since 2016, according to US indictments.
QQAAZZ is believed to have laundered money through numerous bank accounts, with funds often converted to cryptocurrency to make it more difficult to trace. It then transferred the money back to the cybercriminals responsible for stealing it, taking a fee of up to 50% in the process.
The group advertised its services on Russian-speaking online cybercrime forums and has been employed by criminals behind Dridex and Trickbot malware attacks. Trickbot was responsible for £2m in 12 months being lost by a UK bank.
The Europol-coordinated investigation was led by the Portuguese Judicial Police together with the United States Attorney Office for the Western District of Pennsylvania and the FBI’s Pittsburgh Field Office, alongside the Spanish National Police and the regional Catalan police. Other countries involved in the operation include Latvia, Bulgaria, Georgia, Italy, Germany, Switzerland, Poland, Czech Republic, Australia, Sweden, Austria and Belgium. Searches of 40 properties were carried out in Latvia, Bulgaria, Spain and Italy as well as the UK.
Richard Winstanley from the NCA’s National Cyber Crime Unit, said: “Financially motivated cyber criminals rely heavily on the services of money launderers like the QQAAZZ network to access the funds stolen from victims. Targeting such networks is just one of the ways the NCA works to cause disruption to the organised cyber criminals who have the most significant impact on the UK. Cybercrime, by default, is a threat that crosses borders and international collaboration such as this is crucial to tackling it. The NCA investigation into UK-based members of this network remains ongoing.”
Criminal Proceedings | Rosenblatt’s Financial Crime Team
The NCA began proceedings in relation to QQAAZZ last year. In October 2019 it also arrested six men believed to have links to the criminal network. One of the men, Arturs Zaharevics, 32, was charged by the FBI and is awaiting extradition to the USA, while the other five were released under investigation. During that operation, NCA officers seized mobile phones, computers, suspected false IDs and financial documents in searches across eleven properties and four vehicles.
Rosenblatt can help
Rosenblatt has a wealth of experience in financial crime and is uniquely placed to support clients that are the subject of a National Crime Agency investigation having being involved in some of the most high profile investigations into multi-million-pound, cross jurisdictional fraud cases in the UK.
https://www.rosenblatt-law.co.uk/services/financial-crime/#white-collar-crime
https://www.rosenblatt-law.co.uk/services/serious-and-general-crime/
