Many similar robberies happened in other Eastern European countries. It's not as simple as X paid Y to get Z. As your example alludes, it's much more subtle tha

Many similar robberies happened in other Eastern European countries. It's not as simple as X paid Y to get Z. As your example alludes, it's much more subtle than this. Closer to you scratch my back, I'll scratch your friend's of friend's of a friend's later. There are sufficiently enough layers that a normal person's this-can't-be-right sensors go off or it's simply too complicated to piece together with a reasonable amount of effort. Add a pinch of corruption in the judicial system and you got yourself a fertile ground for highway robbery. And don't think the same thing doesn't happen in the US... maybe a bit more subtle, but less and less so from what we've seen in the last few years.