Last week, a man from Lithuania was charged. He is accused of crimes such as wire fraud, aggravated identity theft, and money laundering.
What is this about? Evaldas Rimasauskas from Lithuania admitted to stealing approximately 99 million dollars from Facebook and 23 million dollars from Google between 2013 and 2015.
What is the bizarre part of the story? The case drew particular attention because the execution of the thefts could not have been more blunt. The man simply asked for the money and got it.
Well, he didn’t just call and say, “Hello, I would like several million dollars, thank you.” He approached it a bit more cleverly.
This is how the fraud worked: He sent the companies invoices for items they had never purchased along with his partners.
Along with these invoices, he simultaneously sent contracts and letters. Rimasauskas crafted them in such a way that they appeared to be signed and confirmed by representatives of Facebook and Google. He also forged emails to make them look as if they were signed by executives from Facebook and Google.
Rimasauskas registered a company in Latvia under the same name as the Taiwanese hardware manufacturer Quanta Computer to receive the companies’ transfers. It seems that neither Google nor Facebook thoroughly checked whether the invoices were genuine. They probably just paid. This way, Rimasauskas claimed about 122 million dollars.
How was the scam uncovered? IGN reports that the man ultimately caught Google’s attention and was extradited to the USA in 2017. Just recently, he stood before a court. Now he faces a sentence of up to 30 years in prison. The verdict is expected on July 29. Rimasauskas has reportedly already returned 50 million dollars of his loot.
Google is currently in the headlines because of its new competition to PS4 and Xbox One
