NSW Police makes 29th arrest in Liberty Reserve fraud ring

The NSW Police has arrested and charged a 28 year old Macquarie Fields man over his suspected involvement in a major fraud and cyber crime syndicate operating out of Australia, which used the now defunct Liberty Reserve anonymous payments system to launder funds.

NSW detectives yesterday charged the man with two counts of fraud, one count of using a false document, and one count of participating in a criminal group.

The man is suspected of having used forged documents to illegally gain access to a bank account, from which he is accused of stealing $139,000.

The syndicate is believed to have been laundering stolen funds through the Costa Rica-based Liberty Reserve online payments processing platform, which has since been shut down over its involvement in online organised crime.

Liberty Reserve allowed users to open accounts and move money under false names, and was believed to have enabled over 12 million transactions a year.

The joint AFP and NSW Police effort also nabbed a 21 year old Sydney man in June 2013, and then moved on to lay 96 charges for fraud valued at over $1.8 million against the alleged ring leader in February.

“We expect to make more arrests in the months ahead,” Acting Commander of the NSW Police Force’s fraud and cybercrime squad Matthew Craft said.

In total, 316 charges relating to fraud, cybercrime and identity crime offences have been laid in relation to the crime ring.