German nabbed in foiled 650-m bank scam: Greek police

A 63-year-old realtor from Germany has been arrested in Greece after allegedly attempting to claim 650 million euros ($850 million euros) in a bogus bank transfer, police said on Thursday.

“The sum of money seemed amazing to us too,” a police spokesperson in Athens told AFP.

A 60-year-old Romanian and a 61-year-old Greek were also arrested and charged with attempted fraud.

The incident occurred on the small Aegean island of Kalymnos where the German runs his real estate business, the police said.

A local bank representative alerted the authorities on Tuesday after noticing a request to credit the German suspect’s bank account with the large sum using a fake international bank transfer request.

The Greek suspect is also a realtor while the Romanian posed as a representative of the foreign bank, a police source said.

The three men were arrested after visiting the bank branch to claim the money.

They have been taken to the neighbouring island of Kos to be arraigned before a prosecutor, the police said.