Last month, the German government hired two sales corporations in Zurich and Hamburg to unload 15 million euros ($16.4 million) in protective masks amid the pandemic, Europol said in a press release.
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But with the decline in medical supplies around the world, police said that corporations had to stick to new leads to get the masks and contacted what gave the impression of a valid online page for a company in Spain advertising 10 million to have masks. However, it turned out to be false.
The agreement with him in Spain failed and the siege referred the two corporations to a “trust” broker in Ireland.
“The Irish intermediary has promised to put them in touch with the supplier, this time in the Netherlands,” which could supply the 10 million masks, Europol said.
An initial agreement was reached in which corporations made a down payment of 1.5 million euros for a delivery of 1.5 million masks.
But just before the delivery date, buyers were informed that the budget had never been received and suggested that they send an additional “emergency transfer” of 880,000 euros ($960,933) to “secure the goods,” police said.
They made the transfer, but the mask never came.
FBI EXPOSES ARNAQUE TO CORONAVIRUS AFTER 39M OF MASKS PROMISED TO OUTRER-MER DO NOT ATTACK CALIFORNIA HOSPITALS
“It turns out that Dutch companies existed, but their online page had also been cloned,” Europol said.”There is no official record of the order”.
The buyers contacted their bank in Germany, authorities located and froze the payment of 1.5 million euros to an account of an Irish bank and met the Irish company involved in the plot.
The Department of Justice and the Department of Health and Human Services are guilty of distributing nearly 200,000 N95 respiratory masks and other medical materials in New York and New Jersey after confiscating them from black market vendors.
The Dutch government traced the payment of 880,000 euros, and found that almost 500,000 of the budgets had already been sent to a bank account in the UK and from there they were being transferred to an account in Nigeria.
The British bank was able to pay the full amount, which was returned to the Netherlands and frozen through the authorities.
Police arrested two suspects in the Netherlands as the investigation continues in Europe.
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Last week, the FBI exposed a foreign coronavirus-related scam after more than 39 million masks promised to a harsh California syndicate representing physical care were never delivered to hospitals and other medical teams in the state.
Danielle Wallace of Fox News contributed to the report.