Compliance officers accused of helping criminals run $346 million international payment fraud network

Four U.S. citizens were arrested in California Wednesday in connection with a massive, 300 million euros (U.S. $346 million) international credit card fraud scheme based in Germany, in which compliance officers were allegedly complicit, according to the U.S. Department of Justice (DOJ).

The criminals, who were spread across Canada, Cyprus, Italy, Luxembourg, the Netherlands, Singapore, Spain, and the United Kingdom, in addition to the U.S. and Germany, falsified millions of small, recurring charges on credit and debit cards, some linked to fictitious merchants, starting in 2016.

The suspects allegedly used stolen credit card data to create around 19 million fake online subscriptions on professionally operated websites, primarily offering pornography, dating, and streaming services, Europol said.