The United States Department of Justice charged eight people on Wednesday in connection with a racketeering (RICO) conspiracy.
Following a multimillion-dollar fraud that took place, threat actors stole money from hacked accounts at banks and financial institutions, laundered it, and sent it overseas.
The defendants, Dickenson Elan, Andi Jacques, Jenkins, Louis Noel Michel, Monika Shauntel Jeff Jordan Propht-Francisque, Vladimyr Cherelus, Michael Jean Poix, and Louisaint Jolteus, allegedly worked together to perform computer fraud and scams.
According to the Department of Justice, the campaign was started in 2011 when threat actors began to gain access to accounts at 15 big financial institutions including Citibank, E-Trade, PayPal and TD Ameritrade, JP Morgan Chase, payroll processor Automated Data Processing (ADP), and niche organizations including the U.S. military's Defense Finance and Accounting Service.
As per the data, the defendants along with others from 2015 and 2019, including a now-deceased conspirator referred to as Rich4Ever4430, banded together in a cybercrime and fraud scheme involving tax returns.
The indictment claims, Jenkins, Michel, Propht-Francisque, Cherelus, and Rich4Ever4430, purchased on the dark web server credentials for Certified Public Accounting (CPA) and tax preparation firms and used the data to gain access and exfiltrate the tax returns of thousands of people.
"Hackers only need to find one vulnerability to cause millions of dollars of damage," said Mark Rasch, a former federal cyber crimes prosecutor, based in Bethesda, Maryland.
Overall, they have stolen more than $36 million in false tax refunds. The estimated loss surpasses $4 million however, the exact amount is yet to be confirmed.
The eight defendants have been charged with conspiracy to commit wire fraud, conspiracy to commit identity theft, and conspiracy to commit money laundering.
According to the law, defendants could face fines and up to 20 years in prison on each of the first two charges, and 15 years on the third.
The case is referred as "United States of America v. Oleksiy Sharapka, Leonid Yanovitsky, Oleg Pidtergerya, Richard Gundersen, Robert Dubuc, Lamar Taylor, Andrey Yarmoltskiy and Ilya Ostapyuk," number 13-06089, at the U.S. District Court for the District of New Jersey.
