Influential Ukrainian General Arrested for International Cybercrimes

The Federal Bureau of Investigations (FBI) in collaboration with the Romanian Intelligence Service (SRI) apprehended a 54 year old Ukrainian retired general and two of his accomplices while they were trying to withdraw $1 million (700,000 EUR) from CEC Bank, money obtained as a result of cyberfraud operations.

Valeriu Gaichuk, the former general and currently the director of ITR Europe TV Channel, an Israeli business man and a 37-year-old Moldavian were arrested on Friday in Iasi, Romania, while they were trying to obtain the large amount of money, reports local newspaper Adevarul.

After they managed to obtain the Internet banking account credentials belonging to business owners from Italy and the United States, the group transferred large sums of money into the accounts of companies they owned.

“Later, to wash the money trail, fictitious commercial transactions were made, while in reality the funds were being transferred to other accounts or withdrawn in cash by the members of the criminal group,” reads a statement from Romanian anti-crime and terrorism unit DIICOT.

A day before the operation was busted, the three men tried to withdraw from the same financial institution the sum of $450,000 (400,000 EUR) which they obtained from the accounts of an Italian company. Since the men looked suspicious, the bank postponed the transaction and alerted the authorities.

Gaichuk, who has been living in Belgium for the past few years, claims that the $1 million (700,000 EUR) were given to him by a company that wanted to buy shares at the TV station he owned.

The general posted on his social media profile a lot of pictures which show him with some influential people from both politics and the Church. Russia’s Patriarch, the former president of Moldavia Vladimir Voronin and Victor Iuşcenko, former president of Ukraine are featured in the photographs.

The suspects were taken into preventive custody for 29 days and they were refused bail after the court considered them to be a threat to society.