A Belgian fraudster succeeded in taking hundreds of thousands of euro from a Portuguese bank by posing as a millionaire that lives in Angola. He used a false identity document, went to a branch of the bank and asked them to transfer cash. Before the bank and the victim, a Belgian millionaire that lives in Angola, discovered the fraud, the fraudster had already stolen several hundred thousand euro.
Portuguese bank defrauded of hundreds of thousands of euro by Belgian posing millionaire from Angola
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The fraud came to light after a Belgian millionaire living in Angola noticed that a number of transactions had been made in his name that he didn’t recognise. The transaction had been made from a bank in Lisbon. The Portuguese police launched ‘Operação Flandres’ (Operation Flanders) in an effort to apprehend the fraudster.
The investigation led to the arrest of a suspect here in Belgium last week. The Portuguese daily ‘Jornal de Noticias’ reports that the person detained here is a Belgian and that 8 suspected accomplices were detained in Portugal. The 9 suspects are 5 women and 4 men aged between 24 and 64.
Fake ID
The chief suspect travelled from Belgium to Portugal in May 2024 with a fake ID. He went to a bank in Lisbon and pretended to be a Belgian millionaire that lives in Angola. He asked staff at the bank to carry out several bank transfers. However, the victim’s account manager noticed the transfers and he called the customer. Once the bank refused to carry out any more transfers the fake millionaire returned to Belgium. Portuguese prosecutors say that he stole hundreds of thousands of euro.
Many months of investigation by the Portuguese police uncovered a well-organised group of criminals. Some were responsible for finding the victim’s bank details, while others were responsible for finding and paying the Belgian that posed as the millionaire. Other members of the group were responsible for laundering the money that had been defrauded.