Mauritius - wire fraud and money laundering - three charged after an international cyber-fraud network is stopped

The Mauritian Financial Crimes Commission (FCC) have arrested three people in connection with an alleged Rs 450 million wire fraud case. The facts date back to May 2024.

This alleged case of International Financial Scam was revealed after a complaint filed by a Belgian national, represented by lawyer Jean Claude Bibi.

• A group of alleged cyber-scam specialists was rampant behind the walls of a call centre in St Pierre, targeting victims who had invested large sums in cryptocurrencies.
• Their modus operandi was to join cryptocurrency platforms, identify victims who had lost money in this type of investment, and then contact them to offer to help them recover part of their capital.

Dismantling this network took nearly three weeks of discreet investigation, led by the Financial Crime Commission (FCC). The investigators traced the trail to St Pierre's call centre.

THE THREE ARRESTED WERE

• Yevhen Syvokon and Luvy Neervissingh Ramdenee were provisionally charged with wire fraud before the Moka court and subsequently taken back to the police cell.
• Naresh Kumarsingh Jokhoo has been charged with money laundering.

PROFILES

• Yevhen Syvokon, 36,
• Director of a Ukrainian company residing in Mauritius, where he and his wife occupy a luxurious residence in Villa Tokapi, Bois Chandelle, Mon Choisy.
• Luvy Neervissingh Ramdenee, 41,
• Set up a mechanism to intentionally extract the sum of 234,961 euros (Rs 11.748 million) from the Belgian victim.
• It should be noted that in 2018, Luvy Neervissingh Ramdenee was already at the head of the company, INTERNATIONAL TECHNOKRATS GLOBAL SERVICES LTD.
• Naresh Kumarsingh Jokhoo, 49, a tour operator agent living in Calebasses, was also arrested.
• Thanks to his complicity with Luvy Neervissingh Ramdenee, he is suspected of having benefited from Rs 352,800 from this online scam operated by the international fraud network 2.0.

FCC ARREST

• They have been charged with interim money laundering under sections 36 and 38 of the FCC Act of 2023.
  • The FCC objected to their release and these individuals were returned to the police cell. The objection relates to possible interference with witnesses and the possibility of falsification of evidence.
• The three suspects are in custody in Curepipe, Vacoas, and Moka.
• The first investigation revealed that the scam operated through Strike Online Ltd, a company based in Ebène. The company presented itself as a crypto agent specialising in fund collection.
• This company would have allowed them to obtain customers' bank details, whom they would then have defrauded on a large scale.
• The Financial Crime Commission (FCC) also arrested.
  • Two other foreign nationals, a Serbian and an Armenian, who are allegedly involved in the cybercrime network.
  • They were allowed to return home after interrogation but remained at the disposal of investigators.

WHAT THEY DID

• It all starts when this victim, looking to recover their investments, falls into the trap of these alleged cybercriminals via an online platform.
• Not suspecting they were scammers, she agreed to provide them with her data.
• Once they had this information, the duo accelerated their operation and, in two hours, extracted Rs 8 million.
• Once trust was gained, the network of alleged cybercriminals, led by the duo Yevhen SYVOKON and his accomplice LUVY NEERVISSINGH RAMDENEE, robbed their target of several million rupees in the space of a few hours.
• From Mauritius, they communicated with their victims via international numbers, thus erasing all trace of their actual location.

References

1. https://topfm.mu/fraude-de-rs-450-m-yevhen-syvokon-neervissingh-ramdenee-et-naresh-jokhoo-arretes-par-la-fcc
2. https://defimedia.info/un-reseau-de-cyber-escroquerie-international-opere-depuis-maurice-une-belge-plumee-de-rs-8-millions-en-lespace-de-deux#
3. https://defimedia.info/un-reseau-de-cyber-escroquerie-international-opere-depuis-maurice-une-belge-plumee-de-rs-8-millions-en-lespace-de-deux#