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Saturday, 27.04.2024, 00:51
Lithuanian fraud suspect appeals extradition to US
"The appeal has been filed," the man's lawyer, Snieguole Uzdanaviciene, told BNS.
US law-enforcement officials accuse Rimasauskas of swindling Google and
Facebook out of more than 120 million US dollars.
US officials' letters to Lithuanian law-enforcement bodies, forwarded to
BNS by the suspect's wife, Olga
Rimasauskiene, show that the Lithuanian is accused of defrauding Facebook
of around 99 million dollars and Google of some 23 million dollars.
The lawyer said that her client had to be tried in Lithuania, where he is
alleged to have committed the deeds he is accused of.
Uzdanaviciene added that US officials, in essence, had provided no new
information when asked to by the Lithuanian court.
"These are two essential points of appeal. First, there is not enough
information (for his extradition) and, second, the issue of jurisdiction. (...)
I see jurisdiction in Lithuania," she said.
FRAUDULENT EMAILS
The Lithuanian is accused of sending fraudulent emails to the US companies,
posing as employees of an Asian-registered company. It is suspected that he
conned the Americans into wiring large amounts of money into Latvian and
Cypriot bank accounts under his control. The man is accused of committing the
crimes between 2013 and 2015.
US law-enforcement officials have brought fraud, money laundering and
identity theft charges against the Lithuanian citizen. If convicted, the first
two counts carry a maximum sentence of 20 years in prison.
Rimasauskas allergy stole money that was actually owed to Taiwan's Quanta Computer Inc.
Documents available to BNS show that the money was wired to a Latvian firm
with the same name as the Asian company. Rimasauskas registered the Latvian
company in the summer of 2013 as its sole management board member and
shareholder.
According to US law-enforcement, Google in October of the same year made
three transfers, worth over 23 million dollars in total, to an account opened
by the Lithuanian at Latvia's SEB Bank.
The suspect allegedly submitted forged contracts, one of which had a forged
signature of a Google employee on it, to prove the legality of the funds.
SIXTEEN TRANSFERS FROM FACEBOOK
The Americans say that Rimasauskas two years later tricked Facebook out of
almost 100 million dollars.
According to the documents, the Lithuanian in June 2015 opened an account
with Eurobank Cyprus and received nearly 99 million dollars from Facebook via
16 transfers in August and September of that year.
The US officials say that Rimasauskas caused the stolen funds to be wired
into different bank accounts in seven countries.
The officials say they have no information about any other funds having
been transferred to his bank accounts in Cyprus or Latvia.