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Feds charge three in brain-ache $15m Pentagon payroll pillage plot

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Three men have been indicted in the US for trying to steal at least $15m by hacking into the Department of Defence’s payroll service and customer accounts at 14 different financial institutions.

The US Attorney’s office in New Jersey has charged two men from Kiev in Ukraine, Oleksiy Sharapka and Leonid Yanovitsky, and a third man from New York, Richard Gundersen, with conspiracy to commit wire fraud, conspiracy to commit access device fraud and identity theft and aggravated identity theft.


According to prosecutors, Sharapka led the conspiracy with the help of Yanovitsky, while Gundersen allegedly facilitated the movement of the proceeds from the hacks. The New Yorker is in custody, but both Ukrainians are currently fugitives.

The hackers were able to gain access to bank accounts of over a dozen financial institutions and businesses, including Citibank, JP Morgan Chase, PayPal, Nordstrom Bank and Veracity Payment Solutions. Once they were in, they diverted cash from the accounts to their own bank accounts or on to pre-paid debit cards.

After that, they allegedly hired crews of individuals to “cash out” the stolen money. These “cashers” withdrew the funds from ATMs and by shopping for fraudulent purchases in the US. To help do this, the men stole US identities, which could be used to file fraudulent tax returns and to transfer money to.

The men are facing a maximum potential sentence of 27 years for the charges against them as well as a maximum fine of $250,000 or twice the gross amount of the gains they made from their offences and another $500,000 for laundering the money through international wire transfers and other means. ®

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Article source: http://go.theregister.com/feed/www.theregister.co.uk/2014/03/18/three_hack_banks_dod/

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