Got a Czech bank account? Gangs target foreigners in Czechia for money laundering
Young foreigners with Czech bank accounts are the usual target of gangs, who use the accounts to launder money acquired through online fraud. The well-organised, Russian-speaking gangs put up adverts on the Russian social network Telegram to entice people who will help to launder the money, usually unknowingly.
‘Do you have a bank account? And do you want to earn good money?’ With such simple questions the communication may begin when you respond to one of the many advertisements, written in Czech on the platform Telegram, for easy money-making. Radiožurnál’s investigative team has been following where the adverts lead.
The job offer, which is often aimed at young foreigners living in Czechia, seems simple. All the launderers want to do is borrow the individual's bank account for a short time. If the victim happens to ask about the origins of the money that has landed in their account, the seemingly innocent answer will be that it comes from cryptocurrency trading. They are then supposed to withdraw the money from the account, or give their bank card to a third party who will call in time and withdraw it for them. The owner of the account gets keep part of the money that has passed through the account, usually a few thousand crowns, having been assured that everything is completely legal.
However, the opposite is true; the money transferred to the borrowed accounts comes in the vast majority of cases from criminal activities, for example from online fraud. Police spokesman Ondřej Moravčík explains:
“As a rule, these are funds that are obtained using fraudulent techniques, which use pressure and the ability to manipulate the victims, and their goal is to steal the victims' bank accounts.”
Anyone who accepts the money into their account and passes it on is therefore a part of the crime – and will be prosecuted as such, either as the perpetrator or an accessory to the crime. Ondřej Moravčík again:
“Giving your own bank account to a third party is a big risk. That account can be misused for some form of money laundering, which is a crime in itself, and even if it is an unwitting collaboration.”
Such cases have been increasing recently; in 2022, there were around four thousand of them, and twice as many in 2023, according to police data. The average amount that fraudsters steal from an account is 300,000 crowns, and with such large sums of money, they turn to unsuspecting ‘white horses’ to pass the money through their personal account and ‘clean’ it for the thieves. Meanwhile, the originators of the crime, the members of the gangs themselves, will often evade capture, and therefore justice.
