European crossborder investigation into moneylaundering behind Juicyfields fraud

https://utena.policija.lrv.lt/lt/naujienos/kanapiu-investiciju-schema-nuskandino-milijonus-euru



During the investigation of a large-scale financial crime, in which the criminals used attractive investments in medical cannabis and in which the victims from different European countries, including citizens of Lithuania, participated, a coordination meeting was held at EUROJUST.
On October 25 of this year, at the invitation of Vice President Margarita Šniutytė-Daugėlienė, the representative of Lithuania in the European Union institution that coordinates the activities of legal institutions of member states in the field of international and organized crime (Eurojust), Deputy Chief of the Chief Police Commissariat of Utena County Vaidotas Žilys, Chief of the Economic Crimes Investigation Department of the Criminal Police Ričardas Kuzmickas and chief investigator Monika Bareišytė participated in a meeting on Eurojust cases. Officials in more than ten European countries: Germany, Spain, Portugal, Malta, Cyprus, etc. carry out criminal investigations in their countries into possible money laundering and investment fraud.
A large-scale case is being investigated in Europe, where the victims transferred different amounts of money to specified bank accounts through the investment platform www.juicyfields.io in order to invest funds in the cultivation of medical cannabis, for which a high (30-40%) investment return was promised. Three months later, after receiving the promised return on investment and believing in the successful investment model, they invested even larger sums of money. However, from the summer of 2022, he was no longer able to log in to his account, so he lost the invested funds. According to preliminary data, the total damage caused to the affected natural persons exceeds 200 million euros.
Citizens of the Republic of Lithuania were also tempted by the promised high investment profits, who also lost their invested money. In the pre-trial investigation carried out by the Economic Crime Investigation Department of the Utena County Chief Police Commissariat, it was possible to identify and temporarily limit possibly illegally acquired funds exceeding 700,000 euros.
During the coordination meeting, which was attended by Latvian, Austrian and Swiss officials, available information was shared, investigation actions were discussed, and further procedural actions were planned.