Three foreigners arrested for fraud |03 December 2013

The Fraud Unit of the Seychelles Police has arrested three foreigners who are members of an international fraud syndicate.

A communiqué from the police said that the arrest occurred in Victoria on Friday afternoon.

The three syndicate members had presented a forged HSBC Bank draft and a HMSC Bank letter which falsely represented that the fraudsters held Euro 500 million in funds in HSBC Bank accounts and that these funds were available for investment in Seychelles. The fraudsters presented these documents to the BMI Bank as collateral to open banking accounts.

Before any transactions could be conducted on the newly opened bank accounts BMI was alerted by HSBC Bank, London that the documents were false.

Fraud Unit members were alerted and quickly arrested the three syndicate members.

During the arrest operation a variety of documents as well as laptops and other IT equipment were seized for forensic investigation.

The Seychelles Police together with the Financial Investigation Unit (FIU) are cooperating with Interpol and other international law enforcement partners to determine the scope and extent of the criminal activities of this syndicate.

The three arrested persons appeared before court yesterday on charges of forgery and have been remanded until December 13.