七个让你惊讶的舞弊故事

作者：Hallie Ayres

原文标题：Can’t Make This Fraud Up! 7 Fraud Stories That Will Make You Say, “Huh?!?”

由ACFE China进行翻译，如需转载，请提前告知。

Every once in a while, a fraud story comes along that leaves us totally befuzzled, either for its hilarious twists and turns, or for the sheer irony of the scheme. We’ve compiled seven of these outlandish tales, so that you might join us in our confusion, laughter and awe.

每隔一段时间，就会出现一个舞弊故事，让我们完全感到困惑，要么因为它滑稽的曲折，要么因为这个阴谋的纯粹讽刺。我们已经收集了七个古怪的故事，欢迎加入到我们的困惑、欢笑和敬畏中来。

Farming investment app leads to international fugitive chase

农业投资app导致国际逃亡追逐

Farm Bank, the Turkey-based app that strove to capitalize on the popularity of Facebook’s Farmville, had one thing that Farmville never had: a component that encouraged users to invest in real-world livestock and agricultural operations. Launched in 2016, Farm Bank staged elaborate PR stunts to make users believe that certain farms were being run due to the influx of capital from the game’s users. In 2017, the app developed a franchise of more than 100 delis around Turkey, allowing franchisees to sell products bearing a Farm Bank logo, though they did not come from the company’s farms. While users continued to invest thousands in the app, returns on investments grew fewer and farther between. In early 2018, the Turkish Ministry of Customs and Trade launched a criminal fraud investigation, prompting the company’s founder, Mehmet Aydın, to flee Turkey for Uruguay, taking with him $80.5 million of the $250 million that Farm Bank users had paid out to the company. In July of 2021, Aydın finally turned himself in to authorities at the Turkish consulate in São Paolo, Brazil. He was extradited to Turkey, where he released a statement maintaining his innocence. He currently faces up to 75,260 years in prison.

农场银行是这款总部位于土耳其的应用程序，努力利用Facebook农场的流行，它有一个农场从未有过的东西：鼓励用户投资现实世界的牲畜和农业运营。农场银行于2016年推出，上演了精心设计的公关噱头，让用户相信某些农场的运营是由于游戏用户的资金流入。2017年，该应用在土耳其开发了超过100家的特许经营，允许特许经销商销售带有农场银行标志的产品，尽管这些产品不是来自该公司的农场。虽然用户继续在这款应用上投资数千美元，但投资回报越来越少。2018年初，土耳其海关和贸易部展开了一项刑事舞弊调查，促使该公司的创始人Mehmet Aydın逃离土耳其前往乌拉圭，并带走了农场银行用户支付给该公司的2.5亿美元中的8,050万美元。2021年7月，Aydın终于向土耳其驻巴西圣保罗领事馆的当局自首。他被引渡到土耳其，在那里他发表了一份声明，坚称自己是无辜的。他目前将面临最高75,260年的监禁。

Hackers strive to negotiate by lowering ransomware amount

黑客们努力通过降低勒索软件的金额来进行谈判

When the Florida-based IT firm Kaseya suffered a ransomware attack in early July, the impact of the attack was felt across five continents, with Swedish supermarkets unable to operate cash registers and New Zealand school children unable to access their online classes. The 10-day Kaseya server outage ultimately affected around 36,000 Kaseya customers. Though the hackers initially demanded a ransom of $70 million in Bitcoin from Kaseya, a spokesperson from the hacking group wrote via a chat interface, “We are always ready to negotiate.” This willingness to negotiate eventually led cybersecurity expert Jack Cable to confirm that the hackers had lowered their ransom to $50 million. On July 21, Kaseya announced they had come into possession of a universal decryption key, though they deny having bought the key from the hackers. At this point, it remains unclear whether lowering your asking price by $20 million is a fruitful strategy, though it is certainly a bold one.

7月初，总部位于佛罗里达州的IT公司Kaseya遭受勒索软件攻击，攻击的影响遍及五大洲，瑞典超市无法运营收银机，新西兰的学生无法进入他们的在线课程。为期10天的Kaseya服务器中断最终影响了大约36,000名Kaseya客户。尽管黑客最初要求向Kaseya索要7000万美元的比特币赎金，但该黑客组织的一位发言人通过聊天界面写道，“我们随时准备进行谈判。”这种谈判的意愿最终导致网络安全专家杰克·凯布尔证实，黑客已经将赎金降到了5000万美元。7月21日，Kaseya宣布他们拥有一个通用解密密钥，尽管他们否认从黑客那里购买了密钥。在这一点上，目前还不清楚降低要价2000万美元是否是一个富有成效的策略，尽管这当然是一个大胆的策略。

Nun disobeyed vow of poverty as she embezzled over $800,000

修女违背了贫穷的誓言，挪用了80多万美元

Sister Mary Margaret Kreuper, a 79-year-old retired nun and former principal at St. James Catholic School in Torrance, California, admitted to embezzling $835,339 over a 10-year period. By falsifying her school’s financial reports, Kreuper transfered money from the school’s tuition and donation account into a savings account that was intended to fund living expenses for the nuns employed by the school. After Kreuper’s retirement in 2018, an audit uncovered that she had been diverting funds for her gambling habit and had instructed employees to alter and destroy certain financial documents. She faces up to 40 years in federal prison on money laundering and wire fraud charges.

79岁的玛丽·玛格丽特·克鲁珀修女是一名退休修女，曾是加州托伦斯市圣詹姆斯天主教学校的校长，她承认在10年的时间里挪用了835,339美元。通过伪造学校的财务报告，克鲁珀将学校的学费和捐赠账户转移到一个储蓄账户，该账户旨在为学校雇佣的修女支付生活费用。2018年克鲁珀退休后，一项审计报告发现，她一直在为赌博习惯挪用资金，并指示员工更改和销毁某些财务文件。她将因洗钱和电信舞弊指控而面临最高40年的联邦监禁。

Rappers caught up in IRS fraud scheme

说唱歌手们被卷入了美国国税局的舞弊计划

Sameerah Marrell and Noell Brown, members of the rap duo Deuces Wild, based in Southfield, Michigan, were accused in May 2021 of aggravated identity theft and false claims of conspiracy after a yearslong fraud scheme allowed them to net more than $13.6 million from the IRS. Between 2013 to 2017, the duo filed 122 tax returns, some from fake companies that they established, and others by stealing people’s identities. By the time they were caught, more than $5.5 million had already been paid to them, which the duo used to amass a number of luxury cars, including two Bentleys, a Porsche and a Mercedes-Benz. Each woman faces up to 10 years in prison.

萨米拉·马雷尔（SameerahMarrell）和诺埃尔·布朗（NoellBrown）是说唱二重唱组合DeucesWild的成员，总部位于密歇根州南菲尔德，他们于2021被指控犯有严重的身份盗窃罪和虚假的共谋指控，此前长达一年的舞弊计划使他们从美国国税局（IRS）那里净赚了1360多万美元。2013年至2017年，两人提交了122份纳税申报单，其中一些来自他们设立的虚假公司，另一些是通过窃取人们的身份。当他们被抓时，他们已经拿到了550多万美元，用来购买了一系列豪华车，包括两辆宾利、一辆保时捷和一辆梅赛德斯-奔驰。每个女人都将面临最高10年的监禁。

Master of disguise operated fraud scheme with the help of elaborate prosthetic face masks 

伪装大师在精心制作的假面具的帮助下实施舞弊计划

The 56-year-old John Christopher Colletti of Harper Woods, Michigan, pled guilty to identity fraud and wire fraud schemes by which he amassed $125,740 from his victims. Always wearing some sort of elaborate disguise, usually involving a prosthetic face mask, Colletti frequented casino kiosks to withdraw cash from stolen account numbers. Though casino kiosks require users to insert a driver’s license and the last four digits of their social security number, Colletti had purchased this data online by seeking out the identities of gamblers who are part of casinos’ VIP Preferred Program. He then had fake licenses produced in their names. When he was arrested in March of 2020, a search of his vehicle yielded “four prosthetic face masks, flash drives, 83 driver’s licenses, 14 insurance cards in multiple names, six open water diver certification cards, two Binghamton University staff ID cards, [and] 19 players cards from various casinos.” In late July 2021, he was sentenced to four years in prison for his scheme.

56岁的来自密歇根州哈珀伍兹市的约翰·克里斯托弗·科莱蒂，承认了身份舞弊和电信舞弊阴谋，他从受害者那里获得了125,740美元。科莱蒂总是戴着某种精心设计的伪装，通常是一个假面具，她经常光顾赌场的信息亭，从被盗的账号中提取现金。虽然赌场信息亭要求用户刷驾照和输入社会安全号码的后四位数字，但科莱蒂通过寻找赌场VIP首选计划的赌徒的身份，在网上购买了这些数据。然后，他用他们的名字出示了假驾照。当他在2020年3月被捕时，对他的车进行了搜查，发现了“四个假面具、闪存盘、83张驾照、14张多名字的保险卡、6张开放式潜水员认证卡、两张宾汉姆顿大学工作人员身份证，以及来自不同赌场的19名玩家卡。”2021年7月底，他因其阴谋被判处四年监禁。

Facing a fraud sentence, scammer is caught while attempting to flee to Canada

面对舞弊判决，骗子在试图逃往加拿大时被抓住

Andy Patel, who admitted to helping facilitate fraud schemes via Indian call centers, was sentenced to 40 months in U.S. prison in September 2020. The call center scheme, which impersonated the IRS and scammed victims out of a collective $11 million, employed Patel, who lived in Illinois, as a runner on the ground in order to move money from prepaid cards to different accounts within the U.S. After being released from jail after his sentencing, Patel was meant to surrender to U.S. Marshals on November 3, 2020. Viewing his few final weeks of freedom as an opportunity, Patel attempted to flee to Canada in October but was promptly picked up on the border. Now, in addition to his 40-month sentence, Patel has been ordered to pay $250,000 for his last-ditch effort to escape.

安迪·帕特尔承认通过印度电话中心帮助促成了舞弊阴谋，并于2020年9月被判在美国监狱服刑40个月。电话中心阴谋冒充美国国税局，骗走受害者1100万美元。该阴谋雇佣了家住伊利诺伊州的帕特尔作为一名偷运者，以便将预付卡中的钱转移到美国境内的不同账户。帕特尔被判刑后被释放，他本打算在2020年11月3日向美国法警投降。帕特尔把自己最后几周的自由视为一个机会，试图在10月份逃往加拿大，但很快就在边境被抓获。现在，除了40个月的刑期外，帕特尔还被责令支付25万美元，作为他逃跑的最后努力。

80 year-old money launderer attempted to purchase a bank to keep his operation alive

一名80岁的洗钱者试图购买一家银行，以维持他的运转

Pablo Hernandez of Tijuana, Mexico, received a seven-year sentence in January 2021 for his involvement with money laundering for a drug trafficking syndicate. Charged with violating RICO, Hernandez admitted that he laundered millions of dollars from Mexico to the U.S. through an account at the Westminster-based Saigon National Bank. When one of his accounts was shut down by the bank, Hernandez tried to purchase the bank itself so that they could proceed with their operation. The bank has now changed its name to California National Bank, but its former CEO, Bill Lu, is indicted in the RICO scheme, along with 25 other people associated with the operation. In an investigation that prosecutors have begun calling “Operation Phantom Bank,” 15 of the 25 defendants have been convicted so far.

2021年1月，来自墨西哥蒂华纳的巴勃罗·埃尔南德斯因参与一个贩毒集团的洗钱活动而被判7年徒刑。被控违反RICO规定的埃尔南德斯承认，他通过总部位于威斯敏斯特的西贡国家银行的一个账户从墨西哥向美国洗钱了数百万美元。当他的一个账户被银行关闭时，埃尔南德斯试图购买银行本身，这样他们就可以继续运转了。该银行现在已更名为加州国家银行，但其前首席执行官比尔·卢和与该行动有关的其他25人一起被指控参与了RICO计划。在一项调查中，检察官开始称为“幽灵银行行动”的调查中，25名被告中有15人迄今已被定罪。

文章来源：https://www.acfeinsights.com/acfe-insights/2021/9/13/cant-make-this-fraud-up-7-fraud-stories-that-will-make-you-say-huh