FLASH
Shkruar nga Pamfleti
SPAK has provided details regarding the operation conducted on Wednesday afternoon against a call center in Tirana, which is suspected of defrauding several French citizens, causing them a damage of 2 million euros in just 3 months. The period when the fraud occurred, according to SPAK, is February-May 2023, while the operation was carried out in cooperation with French authorities.
The operation has been extended to an office and 4 apartments, while one person has been arrested. In total, according to SPAK, the fraud has involved 13 French citizens, with the damage estimated at around 845 thousand euros for the first 4 and 1.1 million euros for the other 9.
It is suspected that the call center operated in the center of Tirana, near the Sami Frashëri High School, where, according to data, the illegal activity was carried out camouflaged through a company.
The suspected owner has been identified as Gentian Pjetërgjokaj, who has been arrested on charges of fraud with serious consequences.
During the operation, a police officer, August Berberi, was also detained. The latter's phone was seized and his apartment was searched by BKH and AMP agents, as part of investigations into possible involvement in this activity.
Official announcement from SPAK
The Special Structure against Corruption and Organized Crime (SPAK) in cooperation with the Judicial Police officers of the Financial and Digital Investigation Division of the Gendarmerie of Pau (France) conducted on 22.4.2026, checks at a call center and four apartments in Tirana, in connection with a joint investigation into the criminal offense of "Computer Fraud".
From the spontaneous exchange of information, sent by Eurojust, the Gendarmerie Investigations Section in Pau has forwarded to the Special Prosecutor's Office the data on the investigation into the fraud of several French citizens for investments in cryptocurrencies. On the basis of this information, criminal proceedings no. 39/20255 have been registered for the criminal offenses of "Computer fraud", committed in collaboration in the form of a structured criminal group, "Structured criminal group", as well as "Commitment of offenses by a criminal organization and a structured criminal group", provided for by articles 28/4, 143/b, 333/a and 334 of the Criminal Code.
According to investigative data, the Pau Prosecutor's Office is conducting preliminary investigations for fraud through investments in cryptocurrencies, carried out within the framework of an organized group, through the company "Universal Trade" (https://universaltrade.io), as well as for money laundering under aggravating circumstances, following several reports filed by four French citizens.
The damage caused to four French citizens is worth 845,400 euros, while against 9 other whistleblowers, already identified, the damage has reached 1.1 million euros for the period February 2023 - May 2023.
Victims were contacted by agents with fake French identities, who instructed French citizens to invest in cryptocurrencies through the platform https://universaltrade.io.
The joint investigation has enabled the tracing of funds transferred in cryptocurrencies by the victims, leading to the identification of the wallet holders, including several Albanian citizens. According to reasonable suspicions, based on evidence, these citizens have opened cryptocurrency wallets with the aim of transferring funds to the perpetrators of the fraud.
The identified citizens are:
AB,
E. Sh.,
BZ,
FB,
GP,
After the checks and interrogation of citizens AB, E. Sh. and BZ, it turns out that citizen GP was the main person involved in opening the cryptocurrency wallets, who also transferred the victims' funds. Under these conditions, the arrest warrant issued by the special prosecutor was executed by investigators of the National Bureau of Investigation.
As a result of this international operation and the controls carried out, computer units, electronic storage devices, mobile phones, four "cold wallets", a luxury vehicle, various documents related to the victims and the persons involved, seals of economic entities, identification documents suspected of being forged, automatic money counting equipment, as well as monetary amounts in US dollars, Canadian dollars, euros, pounds and lek, with a total value of approximately 5,000,000 lek, were seized.
Regarding the persons and entities involved in this criminal activity, a detailed analysis of investigative data is ongoing with the aim of fully documenting criminal responsibility.
The checks carried out on 22.4.2026 were carried out in close cooperation with the Police Supervision Agency and with the support of the State Police.
Lini një Përgjigje