This article has been indexed from CyberCrime & Doing Time

 You may recall from July that I am very impressed with the Garda National Economic Crime Bureau (GNECB) in Ireland.  (See: “Operation Skein: The Irish Garda Target BEC Criminals“)  While the biggest Black Axe arrest in recent days was the amazing work of the US Secret Service and their partners in South Africa (See: “Eight Nigerians Charged with Conspiring to Engage in Internet Scams and Money Laundering“) the Garda are also taking things to a new level of working every lead and following every string and most importantly, sharing important facts with the public that allows us to be more wary!

In this last Garda action, two criminals were charged with Pandemic Unemployment Payment fraud, which in Ireland is called PUP.  In the US, we also have West African gangs heavily involved in unemployment fraud, as was demonstrated in Washington State in the case that Agari called “Scattered Canary.” 

In Ireland, Oluwagbewikeke Lewis and Bashiru Aderibigbe stole €183,000 but were working on a scheme to steal €1,000,000 and communicating via WhatsApp on how to launder that amount of stolen funds.  Detective Superintendent Michael Cryan believes their activities were consistent with the behavior of The Black Axe. The pair were in communication with someone who they referred to as “the Chairman” where they discussed laundering funds, partly via bank accounts located in Germany.  The story is expertly conveyed by Liam Heylin of the Irish Examiner, which I summarize below: