The FBI deciphered a decade-old cybertheft ring who made 5,100 purchases with the debit, credit and bank cards of unsuspecting victims in Charlotte and Mooresville, prosecutors said Friday.
The ring lasted so long because the thieves made $7 to $15 purchases so small that the victims never noted them in their statements, U.S. Attorney Dena King said in a news release announcing the arrest of one 49-year-old Ukrainian man in the case.
“Greed knows no bounds, but justice knows no borders,” King said.
Man arrested in Germany
Viacheslav Alexandrovich Basovych was arrested in Germany in December and extradited to Charlotte on Thursday. He is charged with conspiracy to commit wire fraud, access device fraud and conspiracy to commit money laundering, court records show.
FBI agents discovered 148,000 fraudulent transactions in total, totaling $1.8 million in losses, according to an unsealed indictment after Basovych appeared before U.S. Magistrate Judge Carleton Metcalf in U.S. District Court in Charlotte, N.V. Friday.
The indictment does not reveal where the other transactions were made or how many victims were involved.
Basovych remained in federal custody following his court appearance.
Charlotte and Mooresville victims
According to the indictment, Basovych and his associates stole victims’ personally identifiable and financial information from October 2013 to February 2022. This included credit cards, bank cards and debit cards, court records show.
The indictment lists five victims from Charlotte and one from Mooresville, but does not name them.
According to the indictment, Basovych and his co-conspirators used “a network of money mules to launder the proceeds of crime and avoid detection.”
The indictment does not name the co-conspirators or detail how the thieves accessed the victims’ personally identifiable and financial information.
“Today’s world does not allow us to physically lock our identities in a safe,” said Robert DeWitt, special agent in charge of the FBI’s Charlotte division, in a statement. “Unfortunately, this vulnerability has given cyber criminals the opportunity to exploit and profit from stolen identities.
“The FBI is committed to ensuring that international cybercriminals do not operate with impunity,” DeWitt said.
The wire fraud conspiracy and conspiracy to commit money laundering charges each carry a maximum of 20 years in prison and the access device fraud charge carries up to 10 years.
King thanked the FBI’s Charlotte Field Office for the investigation that led to the charges. She thanked Interpol offices in Wiesbaden, Germany, and Washington, D.C., “for their substantial assistance,” and the Justice Department’s Office of International Affairs for the arrest and extradition.
