Russian Accused Imprisoned for Fraud Involvement

A US Federal Court in New York sentenced declared imprisonment to a Russian national, Nikolay Garifulin for 2 years in connection to a US$ 3 Million global bank fraud conspiracy involvement. The fraud scheme involves a dozen of compromised US accounts, reports rapinnews on March 26, 2012.

Garifulin was found guilty of having connection with the bank fraud conspiracy and also for possessing false identification document on 23 September 2011.

Hackers from Eastern Europe employed cyber attacks for stealing the bank money from the account of small- and mid-sized business across the US. The cyber attacks include the malware, Zeus Trojan, which would embed itself in a victim's computer and record their key scores as they logged into their online bank account.

Garifulin is one of the 27 Russian arrested in the US in October 2011 for conspiracy to commit bank fraud, money laundering and passport fraud. Most of these co-conspirators have already been sentenced to various prison terms.

Garifulin was a leader of "money mule organization" responsible for the proceeding of the malware and transferring the stolen money overseas. He also arranged for fake passport to be transferred for mule recruited among individuals who entered the US on student visa for Eastern Europe.

The enquiry commission for the inspection of the bank fraud scheme comprised of a team including the US Attorney's office for the southern district of New York, the New York county district Attorney's Office, the Federal Bureau of Investigation, the New York City Police Department, the Department of State Diplomatic SecurityService, the US Immigrations and Custom Enforcement Homeland Security Investigation, and the US Secret Service.

After inquiry, 37 defendants were held responsible in September 2011. However, Garifulin was the last of 27 defendant arrested for having connections with the scheme. Besides Garifulin, 23 defendents were involved and sentenced, of which two leaders were from the Mule Organization. Kasum Adigyuzelov, one of the accused was sentenced on May 13, 2011 for 4 years in jail While the other accused, Dorin Codreanu was sentenced on July 8, 2011 for 20 Months in jail.

Related article: Russian Hackers Break into NOAA to Push Pills

» SPAMfighter News - 4/4/2012