Evaldas Rimasauskas from Lithuania came up with, what may now seem as, a rather obvious scheme targeting Google and Facebookwhich involved sending the billion-dollar companies fraudulent invoices for products and services he claimed to have sold to the enterprises.
Discover our latest podcast
Scamming Google and Facebook
Between 2013 and 2015, Rimasauskas sent Google and Facebook a number of fake invoices through a company he had registered under the name of a Taiwan-based company, Quanta Computer Inc. Which had had dealings with both companies in the past.
Evaldas' scheme actually became quite elaborate, as according to the U.S. Justice Department:
Forged invoices, contracts, and letters that falsely appeared to have been executed and signed by executives and agents of the Victim Companies, and which bore false corporate stamps embossed with the Victim Companies’ names, to be submitted to banks in support of the large volume of funds that were fraudulently transmitted via wire transfer.
The money he received in payment of these alleged services and products was then split up into a number of different bank accounts all over the world including Slovakia, Latvia, Cyprus, Hong Kong, and Hungary.
Missing money
In 2017, Rimasauskas was extradited to the U.S. from Lithuania and has been sentenced to five years in prison. He has also since agreed to give up $49.7 million of what he had personally collected through theschemeand will be required to pay $26,479,079.24 in restitution once he is released.
