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 Oleksiy Sharapka, 33, and Leonid Yanovitsky, 39, both of Kiev,
Ukraine; and Richard Gundersen, 47, of Brooklyn, New York, were each
indicted on charges of conspiracy to commit wire fraud, conspiracy
to commit access device fraud and identity theft, and aggravated
identity theft.
The men were among eight people charged, according to U.S. Attorney
Paul Fishman in New Jersey, who announced the indictments.
Fishman said compromised accounts belonged to customers of Aon
Hewitt, Automatic Data Processing Inc, Citibank NA, eBay Inc's
PayPal, Electronic Payments Inc, E*Trade, Fundtech Holdings LLC,
iPayment Inc, JPMorgan Chase Bank NA, Nordstrom Bank, TD Ameritrade,
TIAA-CREF, USAA, Veracity Payment Solutions Inc, and the Defense
Department's finance and accounting service.
Prosecutors accused the men of gaining unauthorized access to
networks, diverting customer funds to bank accounts and pre-paid
debit cards, employing "cashers" to make ATM withdrawals and
fraudulent purchases in Georgia, Illinois, Massachusetts, New York
and elsewhere.
These conspirators were also accused of using stolen identities to
file false tax returns seeking refunds with the Internal Revenue
Service.
The scheme ran from around March 2012, when Sharapka was deported
after serving nearly 7-1/2 years in federal prison in Massachusetts,
to around June 2013, according to court records.
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Prosecutors said Sharapka ran the conspiracy with help from
Yanovitsky, and Gundersen helped move fraud proceeds. Each faces up
to 20 years in prison on the wire fraud conspiracy count.
The Ukrainian defendants remain at large, while Gundersen was
expected to answer the charge in court at a later date. Gundersen's
lawyer did not immediately respond to requests for comment.
Charges against one of the other defendants, Ilya Ostapyuk of
Brooklyn, were dismissed in September, court records show. The other
four defendants either pleaded guilty or still face charges, a
spokesman for Fishman said.
The case is U.S. v. Sharapka et al, U.S. District Court, District of
New Jersey, No. 13-mj-06089.
(Editing by Grant McCool)
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