A man brazenly scammed both Google and Facebook out of a whopping $122 million by sending the firms fake invoices pretending to be from contractors.
According to the Department of Justice, the man in question, whose name is Evaldas Rimasauskas, was sentenced to five years behind bars for his crimes of ‘participating in a fraudulent business email compromise scheme that induced two US-based internet companies to wire a total of over $120 million to bank accounts he controlled’.
US Attorney Geoffrey S. Berman said: “Evaldas Rimasauskas devised an audacious scheme to fleece U.S. companies out of more than $120 million, and then funneled those funds to bank accounts around the globe. Rimasauskas carried out his high-tech theft from halfway across the globe, but he got sentenced to prison right here in Manhattan federal court.”
For around two years starting from 2013, Rimasauskas used his scheme to fraudulently deceive companies into wiring money to bank accounts he controlled.
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The companies that fell victim to his fraud included tech giants such as Google and Facebook, who were deceived out of millions of dollars.
This resulted in large amounts of money being moved and in March 2017, he was arrested by Lithuanian authorities.
Afterwards, he was extradited to the Southern District of New York in August 2017.
The fraudster pled guilty to his crimes and was subsequently sentenced to 60 months in prison.
In addition to his prison sentence, Rimasauskas was also ordered by US District Judge George B. Daniels to serve two years of supervised release, to forfeit $49,738,559.41, and to pay restitution in the amount of $26,479,079.24.
Now, his case has resurfaced online, with many people taking to social media to share their own reactions to it.
On Reddit, one user wrote: “A man called Evaldas Rimasauskas scammed Facebook and Google out of $122 million by sending fake invoices - which they unknowingly paid.”
Another said: “Could've stopped at a few million, retired, and lived debt free and comfortably on the interest the rest of his life. Damn.”
A third person commented: “If they were dumb enough to pay the invoices without checking them it’s kind of on them.”
And a fourth explained: “If he just sent an invoice asking for money and they paid it, not fraud. But this guy sent fake invoices from contractors pretending to be them so Google thought they were paying their vendors. That's when it becomes fraud.”