International coordination shuts down servers
Eurojust announced on Tuesday that authorities arrested seven people during an international action against an investment fraud scheme involving Germany, Cyprus, Finland, Albania, Kosovo, North Macedonia, and Israel. The coordinated action, conducted with Europol, shut down over 100 servers. This investigation began in 2022 after a German couple reported they had been victims of a fraud scheme after they invested savings but could not withdraw their profits from the online platform they had used. Europol states that investigators estimate losses exceeding EUR 4 million. The operation, led by the German Itzehoe Public Prosecutor’s Office (Staatsanwaltschaft Itzehoe), targeted a company suspected of supplying fraudulent trading websites to criminal groups and call centre operators who allegedly persuaded victims to hand over their savings. Authorities, supported by Eurojust and Europol, have taken action against the criminal network, and officials are considering extradition to Germany for the arrested individuals. The group used fraudulent online platforms to target victims across multiple countries.
Arrests in Kosovo and history of the network
In Kosovo, police raided five different locations and arrested three suspects identified as M.P., I.H., and F.Z. These individuals face suspicion of committing the criminal offences of "participating in or organising an organised criminal group, fraud, unauthorised computer access and computer fraud" following the raids. Police also seized cars, mobile phones, computers, and other electronic devices.
The current crackdown follows several previous enforcement actions against this criminal network. In May 2025, Eurojust reported that an organised criminal group (OCG) operating globally defrauded more than 100 victims of over EUR 3 million through a fake online investment platform, which led to the arrest of one suspect in Cyprus. In September 2022, authorities in Finland, Germany, Belgium, and Latvia succeeded in striking a blow against the operators of various fraudulent online investment platforms through raids in 12 locations. This September operation targeted a criminal group that defrauded victims from 11 different countries out of several million euros. Authorities aim to address the massive scale of the losses exceeding several million euros. The investigation into the fraudulent trading websites and the call centre operators continues in several jurisdictions, while the coordinated effort targets the digital infrastructure used by these criminal groups.
