€1.5 million is suspected to have been laundered into Irish bank account
An Irish man has been questioned as part of an investigation into an elaborate €15m Covid-19 scam.
The investigation was launched when German health authorities made an upfront payment online of €1.5m for face masks, only to discover the website advertising the personal protective equipment (PPE) was being operated by scammers.
An Irish intermediary put a German company in touch with a Dutch one to place an order for 11 million masks worth up to 7.7 million euro.
However, this order was effectively fake as scammers had managed to clone the website and email address of a real Dutch company.
A €1.5m down payment was made for the delivery of some of the masks to an Irish bank account based in Roscommon.
In late March, reps from the German and Irish companies met in Amsterdam to oversee the handover of the shipment – But it never happened and they realised it was an elaborate scam.
An investigation was launched and €1.5 million has since been frozen in an Irish Bank account.
A man in Co. Roscommon has been interviewed by members of the Garda National Economic Crime Bureau and gardaí on suspicion of money laundering.
