U.S. Arrests Nigerian-Canadian, 4 Others Wanted in Germany Over €300m Fraud Scheme
The United States has arrested five international fugitives, including a Nigerian-Canadian identified as Tunde Benak, in connection with a massive fraud scheme that allegedly defrauded thousands of victims in Germany of more than €300 million.
The arrests were made in California at the request of the German government, which has charged the suspects with operating a criminal network that manipulated German payment processing systems and created a shadow financial structure to carry out the scheme.
The announcement was made in a joint statement by Acting Assistant Attorney General Matthew Galeotti of the U.S. Department of Justice’s Criminal Division, First Assistant U.S. Attorney Bill Essayli for the Central District of California, and Director Gadyaces S. Serralta of the U.S. Marshals Service.
“Pursuant to its treaty obligations, the United States located and arrested the fugitives in the Central District of California for extradition to Germany,” the statement said.
The suspects arrested include four U.S. citizens — Medhat Mourid (Woodland Hills), Andrew Garroni (Los Angeles), Guy Mizrachi (Agoura Hills) and Ardeshir Akhavan (Irvine) — as well as Canadian national, Tunde Benak, also of Irvine. All appeared in federal court following their arrest.
German authorities allege that the group created fraudulent recurring charges — typically below €50 to avoid detection — on victims’ debit and credit cards from fake online merchants. These transactions were then processed through payment service companies whose executives and compliance officers were allegedly complicit in the scheme.
Some former executives of German payment processing firms were also arrested as part of coordinated operations carried out simultaneously in Germany, Italy, Luxembourg, Spain, Cyprus, the Netherlands, the United Kingdom, Canada, and Singapore.
The U.S. Department of Justice’s Office of International Affairs coordinated the U.S. arrests and is working with German prosecutors as extradition proceedings begin.
