The joint efforts of the British Southeast Regional Anti-Organized Crime Unit (SEROCU), the Hesse State Police in Germany, the UK National Crime Agency (NCA) and Europol have identified and arrested suspects for fraud, theft and money laundering, who have stolen 10 million euros (about 11.3 million dollars) in IOTA. A 36-year-old man was arrested after a search warrant was executed in the city of Oxford in the United Kingdom.
According to Europol’s official report , the investigation began in early 2018, when the state of Hesse police was notified of the theft of funds. The initial investigation led to the site where the cybercrime took place: Iotaseed.io. The person behind the website got access to the wallets of the victims and transferred iota coins to other wallets created with fake IDs.
By mid-2018, the German authorities were able to track down the fraudulent activities of a suspect living in the United Kingdom. The case was then transferred to the Joint Cybercrime Task Force (J-CAT) at the European Center for Cybercrime (EC3). Once in Europol, J-CAT was able to coordinate the powers of the EU Member States affected by the crime.
A brief video report on the operation is available below:
