This week, OCCRP partner re:Baltica published a series of investigations into the business dealings of Uzbekistan’s elite in Latvia with stories of fraud, bribery and attempted assassination.

An Estonian national who ran an internet fraud scheme that infected more than four million computers worldwide was sentenced yesterday to more than seven years in prison, the US Attorney’s Office in New York said.

Israeli police are investigating a possible US$ 65 million fraud at the world’s largest diamond exchange in Ramat Gan, a city east of Tel Aviv, the Guardian reported.

Prosecutors have charged a former Manhattan restaurant owner over an alleged multi-million-dollar Ponzi scheme in which investors were told their money would be invested in a liquor business, a US Attorney’s Office news release said Friday.

Interpol and Europol coordinated with national agencies across 57 countries to carry out their largest-ever seizure of dangerous fake food and drink, news releases by the two agencies said Wednesday.

Swiss prosecutors have charged an ex-Credit Suisse wealth manager with fraud, misappropriation and criminal mismanagement, Bloomberg reported. The bank also faces a money laundering probe in Italy, Reuters said.

The US Department of Justice has charged three people from Turkey and Iran with moving hundreds of millions of dollars for the government of Iran and Iranian companies, in an apparent attempt to evade economic sanctions.

US authorities have charged Bulgarian resident Nedko Nedev with six counts of fraud and two counts of aggravated identity theft, according to the US Attorney’s Office of the Southern District of New York.

It took five days and nearly 200 interviews, but police across Europe last week arrested 81 people accused of working as “money mules” for cybercriminals, helping transport or launder an estimated € 7.5 million (US$ 8.1 million), according to Dutch police.

Sixty-nine homes and offices across Europe were raided and nine suspects were arrested in connection with online forums that were used for illegal operations, according to a news release from German police on Monday.  

Lithuania has granted refugee status to one of the fugitive brothers-in-law of Kazakh billionaire Mukhtar Ablyazov, reported Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty (RFE/RL).

The man charged with investigating as much as US$ 1 billion allegedly stolen from aid to Palestine said that over the past five years, he has recovered only US$ 70 million, according to Reuters. 

The Council of the European Union has called on Moldovan authorities to investigate the massive Moldovan banking fraud, according to a Feb. 15 news release.

Cybersecurity firm, Group-IB, published a report detailing how cyber criminals accessed terminals of a Russian foreign exchange (FOREX) trading system and made trades worth more than US$ 400 million in February 2015.

Viktor Uspaskich, a member of the European Parliament and a former multi-millionaire, was sentenced to four years in prison for fraud in 2013. This week three judges overturned that conviction on appeal.

Romanian Prime Minister Dacian Ciolos has pledged US$ 65 million in emergency economic aid to Moldova, reported the Associated Press (AP).

 A US federal court in Missouri sentenced a man from Belarus on Tuesday to five years in prison on charges of conspiracy to file fraudulent income tax returns, according to the St. Louis Post-Dispatch.

An inquest into the November 2012 death of Russian tycoon Alexander Perepilichny has been further delayed because Surrey police invoked public interest immunity (PII) to withhold 49 key documents in relation to the case, reported The Sun.

The Chisinau Court of Appeals has rejected an appeal by lawyers to free former Prime Minister Vlad Filat, instead extending his detention for another 90 days, according to Radio Free Europe.

A man from Kansas and a woman from Texas have been arrested by the FBI in connection with a multimillion dollar fraud targeting a Turkish businessman, according to a news release by the U.S Attorney’s Office in Kansas City, Kansas.