A 26-year-old man from the Ivory Coast was remanded in custody after he was charged in connection with another ‘romance fraud’ case.
The police had already arraigned six people over similar crimes in February and investigations into this method of defrauding people online continued over the following weeks.
The man allegedly entered into a virtual relationship with a 58-year-old woman, convincing her that he was a Maltese-Australian national living in Malta but who needed to return to Australia.
Despite having never met the man in person, the woman transferred thousands of euro into a bank account.
After establishing his identity, the police arrested the man at an apartment in St Paul’s Bay. He was arrested by members of the Paola district, the and the anti-money laundering unit within the Financial Crimes Investigations Unit.
He was arraigned on Monday before Magistrate Joseph Mifsud, and was charged with fraud and money laundering. He pleaded not guilty and was remanded in custody.
The prosecution was led by lawyers Karl Muscat, Sean Xerri de Caro and Abigail Caruana Vella from the Attorney General’s office, as well as inspectors Sarah Kathleen Zerafa and Claire Borg.