The US Department of Justice said that the authorities arrested five individuals at the request of Germany as part of an international investigation led by Berlin related to electronic fraud and money laundering networks that used payment service providers. According to Reuters.
The five, 4 Americans and one Canadian, were arrested in California and appeared for the first time in court yesterday, Wednesday.
The ministry said in a statement yesterday, “The United States located the fugitives and arrested them in the Central (Judicial) District of California for extradition to Germany.”
German officials said on Wednesday that 18 others were arrested this week in operations that extended from Singapore to Canada.
Police and public prosecutors in Germany said that about 44 people are suspected of involvement in a large-scale scheme, including 6 former employees of large German electronic payment services companies, who are believed to have participated in the theft of credit card data for about 4.3 million people in 193 countries.
The US Department of Justice stated in the statement that “the network operators colluded with German payment processing companies, including executives, in order to pass these illicit payments.”
