Two Hungarian nationals were held without bail at their arraignments today on larceny charges stemming from an online scam in which vehicles – some fictitious and some belonging to unwitting victims – were put up for auction without their knowledge or permission, Suffolk County District Attorney Daniel F. Conley said.

Assistant District Attorney Benjamin Goldberger of Conley’s Special Prosecutions Unit recommended that ZSOLT LENDVAI (D.O.B. 12/13/85) and ENIKO SOMODI (D.O.B. 1/12/82) be held on $1 million cash bail each, given their apparent access to large amounts of cash and multiple passports from different countries.

Roxbury District Court Judge Franco Gobourne ordered both defendants held without bail pending further proceedings with a Hungarian interpreter. At Goldberger’s request, Gobourne set that bail without prejudice, meaning another judge may revise it at a later date.

The investigation began, Goldberger said, when a man contacted Boston Police recently to say that his vehicle was for sale on eBay without his permission. Detectives assigned to the Special Investigations Unit soon learned that multiple bank accounts had recently been opened in Boston, with people across the country wiring hundreds of thousands of dollars into those accounts for the purposes of buying fictitious vehicles.

Detectives also found that the bank accounts had been opened using counterfeit passports from Portugal and Greece, and that the incoming funds had been wired back out to bank accounts overseas. They sent a bulletin to Boston-area banks with photographs of the two individuals believed to have opened some of those accounts.

Yesterday morning, employees at the Sovereign Bank in Kenmore Square called Boston Police to report that one of the suspects in that bulletin – later identified as Lendvai – was attempting to open a bank account using what appeared to be a counterfeit Greek passport. Two detail officers responded to the scene, as did SIU detectives, who placed him under arrest.

Lendvai, investigators believe, had advertised a fictitious Caterpillar bulldozer on eBay, for which a Missouri man had wired $24,900. At the time of his arrest, he was carrying four passports from Greece and Portugal, all counterfeit, all with different names, and all containing his picture.

Lendvai was also carrying a key to a room at Boston’s Buckminster Hotel. While officers booked and processed him, other officers set up surveillance on the hotel and apprehended Somodi. At the time of her arrest, she was carrying three counterfeit Greek passports and three Greek driver’s licenses, all with her picture.

A search of the hotel room led to the recovery of yet more passports, a computer, and multiple documents related to wire transfers believed to be linked to the scam.

Boston Police are working with Suffolk prosecutors, U.S. Immigrations and Customs Enforcement, and other agencies at home and abroad, and the investigation remains “extremely active,” Conley said.

Lendvai was represented today by attorney Edward Muldoon and Somodi by attorney June Jensen. Their next scheduled court date is Dec. 15.