Uruguay: An employee of the Tacuarembó Police stole more than $100,000 from that headquarters

The Ministry of the Interior in Uruguay reported that, within the accounting area of the Tacuarembó Police Headquarters, in the north of the country, a female manager committed fraud by diverting public funds to her personal bank account.

The criminal maneuver “consisted of the transfer of funds from one account of the Tacuarembó Police Headquarters to another that did not belong to any State agency or private company, but was owned by itself,” the security portfolio statement said.

The diversion of money, in total, exceeds 4.3 million Uruguayan pesos, a figure that is equivalent to almost 100,000 US dollars. The movement was made between 2017 and May 2020. After that, criminal activities slowed down as a result of the change in the chief command, which is why accounting controls were tightened. In March 2022, when she was on extraordinary leave, the maneuvers began again. She was “detected by a policeman from the accounting department,” the text adds.

As reported by the Ministry of the Interior, when the facts became known, the Prosecutor's Office was immediately informed of what happened and the accountant was removed from her post. In addition, the initiation of an administrative case was resolved and his assets were withheld and “rigorous disciplinary proceedings began, resolving the initiation of an administrative case”. An accounting audit will also be carried out at the Tacuarembó Headquarters.

For its part, the Prosecutor's Office requested the formalization of the investigation “for the alleged commission of repeated crimes of particularly aggravated fraud” with respect to CCG.F., and he must serve preventive detention for 60 days.

Another case of scam in Uruguay

The most important case of fraud this week in Uruguay turned out to be in Maldonado, the department in the east of the country that contains the well-known city, Punta del Este. There, the Directorate of Computer Crime began working on several complaints filed in the San Carlos Prosecutor's Office (city within the department) for scams carried out through WhatsApp.

What is known so far is that at least one well-known businessman from Maldonado had his identity stolen. Using their name, they sent messages through the social network, or offering large sums of money in dollars, at a more convenient exchange price than the legal one in place, which, currently, is around 42 Uruguayan pesos.

In the course of this week and the previous one, approximately eight cases with these characteristics were known, reported Maldonado Noticias. All these episodes of fraud are going to be unified into a single cause since the perpetrators are the same and could be operated from outside the country, in an organized way.

The working method is to offer the favorable exchange rate and, when victims fall into the trap, fraudsters send a transfer slip falsely checking the deposit of dollars offered. At that time, the scammed make their deposits in pesos and never receive answers from the dollar seller again.

According to the Police, everything indicates that it is an organized crime gang that would operate from outside Uruguay. It is very likely that there is more than one person behind the maneuver, as there are indications of meticulous prior work to access the victims' profile using information obtained in emails.

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