DOJ Seeks German-Sought Bank Records for Social Media 'Romance Scam' Probe

DOJ seeks an order under Section 3512 of Title 18 appointing Dennis Robinson, a criminal trial attorney in DOJ’s Office of International Affairs, as a commissioner to collect evidence requested by the public prosecutor’s office in Giessen, Germany, for an investigation into a "romance scam" fraud scheme over social media, said DOJ’s ex parte application Monday (docket 1:23-ml-02028) in U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia. German prosecutors allege that an unnamed victim, "an individual in Germany," met someone in July 2021 who identified himself as Darger Abbe Fisher on an online social media platform, said the application. Fisher and the victim communicated exclusively through social media, it said. Fisher claimed to be a U.S. soldier stationed in Yemen, it said. “Over the next several weeks, Fisher compelled the victim to believe that Fisher and the victim were in a romantic relationship,” it said. “At some point in the communication, Fisher informed the victim that Fisher required money to pay for Fisher’s daughter’s life saving surgery,” and convinced the victim to wire more than $34,000 to four separate U.S. bank accounts between September 2021 and May 2022, said the application. “To further the investigation,” German prosecutors asked U.S. authorities to obtain and forward them bank records as evidence to help identify the holders of the four U.S. bank accounts and the perpetrators of the fraud scheme, it said. The request came under a U.S.-Germany treaty that “obligates each party, upon request, to provide assistance to the other in criminal investigations, prosecutions, and related proceedings, including assistance in serving documents, obtaining testimony, statements, and records, and executing searches and seizures,” said the application. DOJ’s requested order appointing Robinson as commissioner is necessary to execute German prosecutors’ request, it said. The application is being made ex parte, "consistent with U.S. practice in its domestic criminal matters," it said.