The man, residing in the Stockholm area, is pointed out as the main person responsible in a comprehensive fraud operation where over 25 people in Sweden have been deceived out of more than 60 million kronor.
The plaintiffs are located all over Sweden. Some have lost large sums, others smaller sums, says Johanna Kolga, who is leading the preliminary investigation.
The 27-year-old was arrested in his absence at the Stockholm District Court on November 19, suspected of 24 cases of gross fraud and two cases of attempted gross fraud.
Two more people are suspected of involvement and have been detained, but are now released on bail.
"System-threatening"
The suspects are believed to have committed fraud via SMS and phone between July 2021 and July 2023. They contacted people, pretending to be from the bank. The plaintiffs were deceived into downloading a new bank ID, which the fraudsters remotely controlled, and thereby obtained large sums.
Johanna Kolga describes it as system-threatening, technically advanced and complicated crime, where some plaintiffs have lost their entire life savings.
They hide behind very advanced technical methods to circumvent various banking systems and avoid warnings from banks.
May take time
According to Kolga, the main person responsible has been in the USA at least for the past year.
American authorities have arrested and detained the man after a search warrant. Europol is described as an important link in the case and has assisted Swedish authorities with contacts.
Next, an extradition request will be sent in and processed in the USA.
Then it depends a bit on his attitude. If he puts up strong resistance to extradition and appeals all decisions, it may take some time.
