There have been several stories about people running elaborate schemes to defraud people and large companies. Many of these schemes have gone unnoticed, while several others have been intercepted by law enforcement agencies and prosecutions followed.
One of the many elaborate schemes is the one that involved a Lithuanian man who worked his illicit magic to dupe two tech giants – Facebook and Google – of up to $122 million. This scheme went on between 2013 and 2015.
The Lithuanian man, Evaldas Rimasauskas, forged invoices, contracts, letters that appeared to have been signed by company executives; and fraudulent emails that looked like they were from Quanta Computer – a Taiwanese hardware manufacturer that supplied both tech giants. The invoices and electronic messages paid so much attention to details that they were easily believed to belong to Quanta Computers – Rimasauskas professionally mirrored Quanta Computers’ logo and official fonts.
In the several emails and invoices, Rimasauskas laid claims for goods and services rendered, and asked for payments to be made for them. Unaware of the scheme, both Facebook and Google paid millions in tranches to bank accounts controlled by Rimasauskas in Latvia, Cyprus, Lithuania, Hungary, and Hong Kong.
The scheme went on till Quanta Computers reached out to Facebook and Google in 2015 about their payment. By the time the fraud was detected, Facebook and Google had paid $99 million and $23 million, respectively, to bank accounts controlled by Rimasauskas. Ouch!
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The authorities launched investigations into the fraud, and by March, 2017, Rimasauskas was arrested. He was later extradited to the Southern District of New York in August, 2017, where he faced fraud charges. He pleaded guilty to wire fraud and identity theft, and was sentenced to 60 months in prison.
Speaking on the case, U.S. Attorney Geoffrey S. Berman, who was in-charge of the case, said:
“Evaldas Rimasauskas devised an audacious scheme to fleece U.S. companies out of more than $120 million, and then funneled those funds to bank accounts around the globe. Rimasauskas carried out his high-tech theft from halfway across the globe, but he got sentenced to prison right here in Manhattan federal court.”
In addition to the prison term, Rimasauskas was also ordered to serve two years of supervised release, forfeit $49 million, and to pay restitution in the amount of $26 million.