Google and Facebook were targeted by a Lithuanian man named Evaldas Rimasauskas as part of an elaborate multiple business email compromise fraud attack. The attack caused losses of over $100 million to the two companies. He has since pleaded guilty to wire fraud, aggravated identity theft, and three counts of money laundering.
Rimasauskas devised an elaborate scheme to fleece U.S. companies out of over $100 million. Those funds were then siphoned to bank accounts across the globe. The indictment shows that Rimasauskas incorporated a Latvian company with the exact same name as Quanta Computer Inc, a reputable computer hardware manufacturer in Asia. He opened multiple accounts in his company’s name at banks in Hungary, Slovakia, Cyprus, Lithuania, and Latvia to receive the payments.
He then used forged invoices, contracts, and letters that falsely “falsely appeared to have been executed and signed by executives and agents of the Victim Companies, and which bore false corporate stamps embossed with the Victim Companies’ names, to be submitted to banks in support of the large volume of funds that were fraudulently transmitted via wire transfer,” according to the DoJ.
Rimasauskas then used spoofed emails to trick employees at Google and Facebook in addition to the banks they worked with to make and approve payments to his fradulent company. The funds were received in those accounts and then distributed to bank accounts from six other companies to obscure the money trail. A Lithuanian court order had revealed that Google and Facebook were the companies that had been defrauded out of $23 million and $99 million respectively.
He has agreed to forfeit $49,738,559.41 to the United States in the wire fraud charge as mentioned in the guilty plea documents. He still faces a maximum sentence of 30 years if found guilty of wire fraud, ggravated identity theft, and three counts of money laundering charges. A spokesperson for Google confirmed that “We detected this fraud and promptly alerted the authorities. We recouped the funds and we’re pleased this matter is resolved.”
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