Love fraud for millions spent on dried fish for Nigeria – NRK Nordland

A man in his 50s has been charged with extensive fraud and money laundering.

According to the indictment, there are 32 counts of fraud and money laundering fraud of NOK 2.8 million.

He shall and to have participated in the laundering of a fraud of 96,128 dollars, which according to today’s dollar exchange rate is around 1.06 million kroner.

From 2019 to 2022, the man has used his bank accounts to receive this fraudulent money. Furthermore, he has transferred part of them to Nigeria and used the rest to buy dry fish, which was also sent to the country.

He bought this dried fish from the Lofot company Sufi AS.

– It is very frustrating to be tricked into a case like this. I dare to say that no one in the industry has stricter guidelines than us to prevent just such cases, and yet it has happened, says daily manager of Sufi AS, Ole Olsen to NRK.

It was Fiskeribladet that wrote about the matter first.

Love fraud

Head of investigations and professional responsible for digital fraud and money laundering in the Agder police district, Pål Harald Svendsen tells Fiskeribladet that they do not know who has carried out the fraud.

– The defendant is a mule who has laundered the money. The defendant has given a name to the police, but it has not been possible to identify this person, says Svendsen to the magazine.

The accused man is a Norwegian citizen, but is originally from Nigeria. He is charged under section 337 of the Criminal Code for serious money laundering and must appear in Agder District Court on 13 May.

Svendsen further says that, on a general basis, such fraud is often carried out by a foreign organized environment. It is not inconceivable that the environment here is from Nigeria, since the dried fish is sent there.

According to the head of the investigation, this is what we are talking about “love fraud”.

The are people on the internet who pretend to be a doctor or a soldier abroad and make contact with women on social media, says Svendsen to Fiskeribladet.

– The women are manipulated or persuaded to transfer a loan or a gift to this person. In some cases, they are manipulated into believing that they will marry this person.

In the indictment, the money comes from a number of men and women with Norwegian names, as well as a dog club and an organisation.

– Increased number of fraud attempts

When it comes to the dried fish, the accused man was commissioned by the fraudsters to act as an intermediary in connection with the purchase and transport of dried fish.

According to the head of the investigation, Sufi AS asked for approved paper on the purchase and had it sent via the defendant. These papers were forged and the money came from a company in Denmark which had also been defrauded, writes Fiskeribladet.

Olsen in Sufi AS will testify in the Agder district court. He says they sell a lot of dried fish to Nigeria.

– There is a relatively large market for dry heads, but it is not one of our largest.

He says that it is not the first time the company has experienced this.

– We generally see that the number of fraud attempts against the company is increasing.

– How common is it for the fishing industry to be exploited in fraud cases?

– It is difficult to say anything about. There have been a number of revelations in recent years where this has happened, and then particularly linked to Nigeria, says Olsen.

He says it is good that the police spend resources on such cases, so that these actors can be cleared away. And hopefully it will have a deterrent effect in the future.