An international boiler room scam that is allegedly responsible for defrauding South Africans of approximately R500 million has been exposed by IRS Forensic Investigations.
The company at the centre of this fraud case is Global Electio Investments.
IRS Forensic Investigations specialise in financial crimes of all types covering all industries and is based in Emmarentia. According to Chad Thomas, Chief Forensic Investigator of IRS, four suspects were recently arrested in a joint operation involving IRS Forensic Investigations, SAPS Crime Intelligence and the Specialist Commercial Crimes Unit of the Hawks.
Thomas stated, “The fraud involved the sale of supposed commodities known as ‘rare metals’ used for technology purposes. It has subsequently been established that these commodities did not in fact exist and that this was an elaborate fraud scam.”
Three of the arrested suspects are South Africans and were released on bail of differing amounts. The fourth suspect, an Iranian citizen, was denied bail as he was considered a flight risk.
Thomas said he was ecstatic about the arrests. He said, “IRS, together with the state authorities, have been investigating the activities of Electio for the past two years.
Electio operated an office in South Africa as well as in Dubai. With the recent signing of the extradition treaty between South Africa and the United Arab Emirates (UAE), of which Dubai is a member, we are hoping for further arrests in the very near future.”
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