the story starts here with two men, artem terzyan and deivis grochiatskij, one russian and one lithuanian. tell us a bit about artem terzyan. russian. previous bad character. came here, was really the controller of what was going on in relation to this group, a bad man. deivis? lithuanian, previous convictions in lithuania, again, afamily man. came to this country, was the mastermind around everything that went on and made a lot of money. this isjohn coles from the national crime agency. a copperfor decades, he knows a thing or two about fraud. i ve never seen anything like it.
anything like it. it is the biggest one i know of. it s the biggest one i ve seen, and it s probably going to be the biggest one we will see for a long time. when covid shut down the economy, the chancellor announced the bounce back loan scheme. well, today, we announced a brand new loan scheme. £50,000 on offerfor small firms with few questions asked. the gang used a network of bogus companies to make hundreds of claims. ringleaders artem terzyan and deivis grochiatskij received long prison sentences. they have strong links to lithuania, and we ve learned that directors of two of the companies used in the fraud are still living there. and here they are yekaterina kobrina and povilas bartkevicius, a model and a chef. we just want to ask you where the money went? what money?
yep, you heard that right. £10 million. and as soon as the bounce back loans hit their bank accounts here in london, they were gone. sent around the world to the united arab emirates, to the usa, to hungary, to malaysia. but terzyan and grochiatskij got careless. they and some of the rest of the gang are now behind bars. here s deivis being interviewed by the national crime agency. so you were arrested this morning on suspicion of being involved in bounce back loan fraud. £10 million of criminal funds. i don t know who is doing this. when officers from the national crime agency went through the doors of flats seven and eight here, they found bundles of cash, high end watches, a string of bank cards and evidence of holidays in the caribbean and reservations at some of london s top restaurants.
so it is the biggest one i know of. it s the biggest one i ve seen and it s probably going to be biggest one we will see for a long time. terzyan and grochiatskij were money launderers caught on police surveillance videos. that bag s stuffed with cash. and this is them delivering a safe. bundles and bundles of notes. ledgers and counting machines. they took dirty money from other gangs and put it through a whole load of fake companies cleaning it, making it look legitimate. here they are, depositing cash at the bank, something they did almost every day. the prime minister announces the toughest restrictions on our way of life in living memory. you must stay at home.
they even needed a safe. now, after a series of court cases, the inside story of the gang that stole £10 million of taxpayers money. i ve never seen anything like it. it is the biggest one i know of. it s the biggest one i ve seen, and it s probably going to be the biggest one we will see for a long time. when covid shut down the economy, the chancellor announced the bounce back loan scheme. well, today, we announced a brand new loan scheme. £50,000 on offerfor small firms with few questions asked. the gang used a network of bogus companies to make hundreds of claims. ringleaders artem terzyan and deivis grochiatskij received long prison sentences. they have strong links to lithuania, and we ve learned that directors of two of the companies used in the fraud are still living there. and here they are yekaterina kobrina and