DOJ Announces Indictment of 36 Transnational Criminals for Cyber Crimes Worth $530 Million in Losses
he Department of Justice announced last week the unsealing of a federal indictment against 36 defendants for their roles in transnational criminal organizations responsible for cyber crimes totalling $530 million worth of losses.
The nine-count indictment charged the defendants for their roles in the Infraud Organization, an Internet-based criminal enterprise responsible for “the large-scale acquisition, sale, and dissemination of stolen identities, compromised debit and credit cards, personally identifiable information, financial and banking information, computer malware, and other contraband.”
So far 13 individuals were arrested from the U.S., Australia, the United Kingdom, France, Italy, Kosovo and Serbia.
The indictment and arrests “mark one of the largest cyberfraud enterprise prosecutions ever undertaken by the Department of Justice,” according to Acting Assistant Attorney General Cronan.
“As alleged in the indictment, Infraud operated like a business to facilitate cyberfraud on a global scale. Its members allegedly caused more than $530 million in actual losses to consumers, businesses, and financial institutions alike—and it is alleged that the losses they intended to cause amounted to more than $2.2 billion,” Cronan said.
“The Department of Justice refuses to allow these cybercriminals to use the perceived anonymity of the Internet as a shield for their crimes. We are committed to working closely with our international counterparts to identify, investigate, and bring to justice the perpetrators of these crimes, wherever in the world they operate,” he said.
According to the indictment, the Infraud Organization was created in 2010 by a 34-year-old Ukranian man named Svyatoslav Bondarenko. The organization “inflicted approximately $2.2 billion in intended losses, and more than $530 million in actual losses, on a wide swath of financial institutions, merchants, and private individuals, and would have continued to do so for the foreseeable future if left unchecked,” the DOJ said.
Using the slogan, “In Fraud We Trust,” the organization “directed traffic and potential purchasers to the automated vending sites of its members, which served as online conduits to traffic in stolen means of identification, stolen financial and banking information, malware, and other illicit goods,” the DOJ said.
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