LOS ANGELES — Five alleged international fugitives living in Southern California have been arrested at the request of Germany, where they are charged for their suspected roles in a fraud scheme involving the creation of recurring bogus debit or credit card charges from fictitious merchants, officials announced today.
Medhat Mourid, of Woodland Hills; Andrew Garroni, of Los Angeles; Guy Mizrachi, of Agoura Hills; Ardeshir Akhavan, of Irvine; and Tunde Benak, of Irvine, were arrested by the U.S. Marshals Service and made their initial appearances in federal court in downtown Los Angeles on Wednesday, according to the U.S. Department of Justice.
Authorities said they would act to extradite the defendants to Germany.
According to German authorities, the defendants allegedly orchestrated a scheme in which they deliberately kept monthly charges on credit cards to below around $57 to avoid suspicion among victims about the nature of the charges. The charges were linked to fictitious companies using fake websites that were only accessible via direct links or URLs, prosecutors said.
Prosecutors contend that the operators of the network colluded with German payment service processors — including their executives and compliance officers — to process the payments. Former employees and executives of German payment processors were among those arrested Tuesday, officials said.
German authorities allege the complex scheme resulted in the creation of a “shadow financial system” in Germany.