matter of hours by hacking their way into a
database of prepaid debit cards and then
fanning out around the globe to drain cash
machines, federal prosecutors said Thursday.
Brooklyn U.S. Attorney Loretta Lynch called it "a
massive 21st-century bank heist" and compared
its size to the Lufthansa heist in the late 1970s
immortalized in the film "Goodfellas." Lynch
said the fraudsters had moved with astounding
speed to loot financial institutions around the
world.
A security analyst said it was the biggest ATM
fraud case she had heard of.
Seven people are under arrest in the U.S. in
connection with the case, which prosecutors
said involved thousands of thefts from ATMs
using bogus magnetic swipe cards. The accused
ringleader in the U.S. cell, Alberto Yusi Lajud-
Pena, was reportedly murdered in the
Dominican Republic late last month, prosecutors
said. More investigations are ongoing and other
arrests have been made in other countries, but
prosecutors did not have details.
An indictment unsealed Thursday accused the
eight of being members of the New York cell,
saying they withdrew $2.8 million in cash from
hacked accounts in less than a day. One of the
suspects was caught on multiple surveillance
cameras, his backpack increasingly loaded down
with cash. Others took photos of themselves
with giant wads of bills as they made their way
up and down Manhattan.
Lynch said the cells would take a cut of the
money then launder it through expensive
purchases or ship it wholesale to the global
ringleaders, but didn't say where they were
located. Prosecutors said the scheme involved
attacks on two banks, Rakbank, which is in the
United Arab Emirates, and the Bank of Muscat in
Oman. Hackers obtained debit card data,
eliminated withdrawal limits on the accounts,
created access codes and then sent a network
of operatives fanning out to rapidly withdraw
money in multiple cities, authorities said.
Lynch called it a "virtual criminal flash mob."
She said they could use any plastic card to
withdraw the cash – an old hotel key card or an
expired credit card – as long as they had the
account data and correct access codes.
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