Eight people in Manacor are among ten who have been arrested by the National Police for having defrauded 25 million euros from some 100 companies as well as regional authorities and town halls.
The two other arrests are in Castellon and Toledo, the police saying that the fraud was led by an individual in Manacor and that it had been ongoing for the past three years. The gang was involved in "phishing" cyber attacks that intercepted communications in order to divert money to accounts that had been opened with false documentation. Another aspect of it was posing as a company director in obtaining access to accounts via an employee. This was done under the guise of supposedly being a confidential and urgent financial transaction.
The fraud first came to light in Majorca and in Jerez de la Frontera in the Madrid province. Officers established that there victims all over Spain.
Money that was diverted to the gang's accounts was then withdrawn from cash machines and by transfers to accounts in other European countries. These were subsequently transferred again, this time to accounts in Spain or via a business in Castellon.
The police were eventually able to block sixteen bank accounts and then conducted four raids in Manacor and one in Toledo. They found contact details for half a million companies and could access at least 1,000 email accounts.
The people arrested are Spanish and from the Dominican Republic, Nigeria and Venezuela.