14 DAY TRIAL // An Oklahoma jury found two Russian nationals residing in Miami guilty of conspiracy to commit wire fraud and wire fraud, related to activities of money muling for Ukrainian cybercriminal gangs.
According to the indictment, Dmitry Vladislavovich Krivosheev, 25, and Maxim Valeryevich Illarionov, 24, were both recruited as money mules by a third defendant named Alexy Olegovich Petrov, who was acquitted.
The fraud occurred in November 2008 and involved the Bank of America corporate account of an Oklahoma-based aircraft title and escrow business called Powell Aircraft Title Services (PATS).
Ukrainian hackers managed to infect computers at PATS and steal online banking information, which they used to transfer $1.3 million to bank accounts set up by money mules around the country.
The accounts were created by unsuspecting individuals tricked by the fraudsters into working for them via work-at-home Internet scams, as well as individuals recruited by Petrov.
Krivosheev and Illarionov opened accounts at Wachovia and WaMu in their own names, with the purpose of receiving money via fraudulent transfers and sharing the proceeds with Petrov.
Prosecutors alleged that Petrov personally drove the two men to various branches of banks to withdraw the stolen money, whenever he learned from hackers that it got transferred.
The transfers were done in amounts of $19,900, in order to keep them under the $20,000 daily limit. On some occasions the withdrawals were blocked by bank employees, but in others the mules managed to to obtain it.
The two men were indicted back in April and a sentencing hearing will be scheduled during the next 90 days. Both of them risk prison terms of up to 20 years and fines of $250,000, the FBI announces.
Money mules are a critical part of cyberfraud operations. Last month authorities in New York charged 37 people suspected of recruiting or acting as money mules for an international cybercriminal network centered around the ZeuS trojan.