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Hungarian criminal behind EUR 3,340,000 fraud caught in Dominican Republic β PHOTOS, VIDEO
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Alex T., the head of a criminal organisation that caused damage of a whopping 1.2 billion forints (EUR 3,341,699) to about 500 victims in seven years, was arrested in a luxury apartment in the Dominican Republic. The identity of the man was unknown even to his accomplices.
The Budapest Metropolitan Police has been investigating a criminal organisation specialising in real estate fraud since November 2017. After years of investigation and international cooperation (the FBI, Europol, and the Dominican authorities were also involved in the investigation), Alex T., the head of the organisation, who was hiding under the name Dominik C. for years, was finally caught in the Dominican Republic and was transported to Budapest, writes Police.
Alex T. coordinated the fraud via the internet and a mobile phone, completely avoiding face-to-face meetings, so he was able to preserve his anonymity.
The 30-year-old man advertised and rented real estate on the internet on behalf of Hungarian companies without the ownersβ knowledge.
Later, his methods became increasingly sophisticated and organised, and he managed to conduct real estate transactions with the buyers losing their money and never becoming owners.
In the first few years (from June 2014 to May 2017), Alex T. conducted numerous real estate scams by asking for rent or an upfront payment as earnest money.
He usually copied the data and photos of different flats from real estate websites or booking sites and then published his own advertisement on behalf of an existing company. The man employed assistants to meet tenants through fraudulent job advertisements in which he offered extremely favourable salaries and working conditions,
emphasises 24. Most of his employees had no idea about the fraud in the background, while others became complicit. After the tenants signed the necessary statements, the assistants collected the rent and the earnest money. At the request of Alex T., the assistants opened bank accounts, then withdrew the money from the account and paid it into their bossβs account.
Some confusion, in the above story 2 different names of countries, Dominica in the headline, and Dominican Republic in the story itself. Dominica is a (small) island in the Caribbean, not very well known, on the other hand Dominican Republic a well known holiday island.