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SPAK conducts operation against computer fraud, 1 Albanian citizen arrested

2026-04-23 14:18:00, Aktualitet CNA

SPAK, in cooperation with the Judicial Police officers of the Financial and Digital Investigation Division of the Gendarmerie of Pau (France), conducted on 22.4.2026, checks at a call center and four apartments in Tirana, in connection with a joint investigation into the criminal offense of "Computer Fraud".

From the spontaneous exchange of information, sent by Eurojust, the Gendarmerie Investigations Section in Pau has forwarded to the Special Prosecutor's Office the data on the investigation into the fraud of several French citizens for investments in cryptocurrencies. On the basis of this information, criminal proceedings no. 39/20255 have been registered for the criminal offenses of "Computer fraud", committed in collaboration in the form of a structured criminal group, "Structured criminal group", as well as "Commitment of offenses by a criminal organization and a structured criminal group", provided for by articles 28/4, 143/b, 333/a and 334 of the Criminal Code.

According to investigative data, the Pau Prosecutor's Office is conducting preliminary investigations for fraud through investments in cryptocurrencies, carried out within the framework of an organized group, through the company "UNIVERSAL TRADE" (https://universaltrade.io), as well as for money laundering under aggravating circumstances, following several reports filed by four French citizens.

The damage caused to four French citizens is worth 845,400 euros, while against 9 other whistleblowers, already identified, the damage has reached 1.1 million euros for the period February 2023 - May 2023.

Victims were contacted by agents with fake French identities, who instructed French citizens to invest in cryptocurrencies through the platform https://universaltrade.io.

The joint investigation has enabled the tracing of funds transferred in cryptocurrencies by the victims, leading to the identification of the wallet holders, including several Albanian citizens. According to reasonable suspicions, based on evidence, these citizens have opened cryptocurrency wallets with the aim of transferring funds to the perpetrators of the fraud.

The identified citizens are:

AB,
E. Sh.,
BZ,
FB,
GP,

After the checks and interrogation of citizens AB, E. Sh. and BZ, it turns out that citizen GP was the main person involved in opening the cryptocurrency wallets, who also transferred the victims' funds. Under these conditions, the arrest warrant issued by the special prosecutor was executed by investigators of the National Bureau of Investigation.

As a result of this international operation and the controls carried out, computer units, electronic storage devices, mobile phones, four "cold wallets", a luxury vehicle, various documents related to the victims and the persons involved, seals of economic entities, identification documents suspected of being forged, automatic money counting equipment, as well as monetary amounts in US dollars, Canadian dollars, euros, pounds and lek, with a total value of approximately 5,000,000 lek, were seized.

Regarding the persons and entities involved in this criminal activity, a detailed analysis of investigative data is ongoing with the aim of fully documenting criminal responsibility. /CNA