14 DAY TRIAL // Eight individuals, suspected of being part of an international cybercrime ring, have been charged by US authorities with conspiracy to commit wire fraud, conspiracy to commit identity theft, and conspiracy to commit money laundering.
According to the Department of Justice, the alleged fraudsters hacked into several global financial institutions and government agencies. They attempted to steal at least $15 million (€ 11.2 million) from US customers.
Oleksiy Sharapka, aged 33, of Kiev, Ukraine, and Leonid Yanovitsky, 38, also of Kiev, are suspected of running the operation.
Oleg Pidtergerya of Brooklyn, NY, Robert Dubuc of Malden, Mass., and Andrey Yarmolitskiy of Atlanta are said to have coordinated crews in their cities. Ilya Ostapyuk of Brooklyn is accused of facilitating the movement of the fraud proceeds, while Richard Gundersen of Brooklyn, and Lamar Taylor of Salem, Mass., worked for Pidtergerya, respectively Dubuc.
Yarmolitskiy was arrested on Tuesday at the John F. Kennedy International Airport. Pidtergerya, Ostapyuk and Dubuc were arrested in their homes on Wednesday morning.
The rest of the suspects are still being tracked down by law enforcement authorities.
Court documents reveal that the hackers gained access to the computer networks of companies such as Aon Hewitt, Citibank, E-Trade, Electronic Payments, JP Morgan Chase, PayPal, the US Department of Defense’s Defense Finance and Accounting Service, USAA, and Veracity Payment Solutions.
Once they gained access, they transferred money from the accounts of the victim companies’ customers into their own accounts and pre-paid debit cards.
They cashed out the proceeds by withdrawing money from ATMs and by making fraudulent purchases.
They stole the identities of US individuals to help them with the cash-out operation. Some of the stolen identities were utilized to file false tax returns with the IRS.
In many cases, they laundered the money they made by wiring it overseas to the leaders of the conspiracy.
“According to the complaint unsealed today, cybercriminals penetrated some of our most trusted financial institutions as part of a global scheme that stole money and identities from people in the United States,” said New Jersey US Attorney Paul J. Fishman.
“Today’s charges and arrests take out key members of the organization, including leaders of crews in three states that used those stolen identities to 'cash out' hacked accounts in a series of internationally coordinated modern-day bank robberies. We will continue to pursue our investigation into this scheme and our fight against the rising threat of criminals for whom computers are the weapon of choice.”