PF carries out operation in Rio, Baixada and Niterói to dismantle scheme that defrauded Caixa’s social accounts

One criminal organization investigated by defraud more than R$ 4.5 million in Caixa bank accountsin November last year, is being dropped this Tuesday morning (28th), in Rio, Baixada Fluminense and Niterói, in an action by the Federal Police (PF) called Operation Restricted Access.

PF agents serve a preventive arrest warrant and three search and seizure warrants, issued by the 2nd Federal Court of Niterói, in the neighborhoods of Jacarepaguá, in Rio, Miguel Couto, in Nova Iguaçu, and Icaraí, in Niterói.

According to the Federal Police, the investigations began with information from the National Security Center of the Caixa Econômica Federal, which identified deviations in the values ​​of the financial institution’s digital social savings accounts.

The suspects, targets of the warrants, provided computer services to Caixa branches in the Rio Metropolitan Region and took advantage of their free transit and their credentials to have what investigators call privileged access.

With this, they were able to obtain passwords and access profiles of other Caixa employees and, thus, make irregular transfers to digital accounts linked to social projects, thus enabling undue withdrawals by the criminal organization.

Also according to the PF, the scheme involved the participation of a hacker already involved in other cyber attacks on bank accounts. He’s on the run.

The crimes investigated are embezzlement, violation of functional secrecy and invasion of a computer device and aggravated theft. The combined penalties, according to the PF, can exceed 30 years in prison.

This Tuesday’s action stems from the Tentacles Task Force.