Another Scam in "war on terrorism"

Kulapavana · 10-06-2005, 08:48 AM

Source: ABC NEWS ONLINE
Published: October 6, 2005

Banks fall for '.' sting, mastermind escapes
A gang that tricked Paris banks out of millions of euros by pretending to hunt down money-laundering by terrorists has perpetrated what French investigators call a "perfectly incredible and ." sting.

French police have arrested two members of the gang and are hunting for the other three, including the alleged mastermind, Gilbert C, who they say has fled to Israel.

The scammers carried out their operation by having one of their number present himself to the banks as an international bank director helping Western anti-terrorist officials track down suspicious money transfers.

He backed up his story by giving details of some of the banks' richest clients and supplying information about certain transfers.

He then told the banks they would receive a visit from an agent from France's DGSE counter-espionage service, who would ask them to secretly put up funds so the "money-laundering rings" could be infiltrated.

Some 20 banks were approached and several complied.

In July, one unidentified establishment provided 350,000 euros in cash to a woman gang member posing as the DGSE operative.

In September, another bank sent $US2.5 million to a Geneva account, two million euros were sent to a Hong Kong account and five million euros were sent to an account in Estonia.

An alert raised by one of the banks allowed police to block two of the September transfers, but the third was allegedly pocketed by Gilbert C before the noose closed.

Police found the gang had set up a myriad of screen companies controlled from abroad.

One investigator says the suspected mastermind is "impossible to catch" and "worthy of the best" of the world's scam artists.

http://www.abc.net.au/news/newsitems...0/s1476042.htm

Kulapavana · 10-06-2005, 08:52 AM

when a scam is successful it's a "terrorist operation" or in this case "criminal operation". when crooks get busted they say:

"IT WAS A STING OPERATION"

watch out for the "anti-terrorism warriors". most of them are just plain CROOKS.

Kulapavana · 10-06-2005, 08:54 AM

"Police found the gang had set up a myriad of screen companies controlled from abroad."

guess where that "abroad" is? they do not DARE to say...

LOL!