Feds indict four in overseas money-laundering scheme

A 34-year-old Ukrainian made a 5,000-mile trip to face international hacking and money-laundering charges in Charlotte.

Viktor Chostak was in federal court Thursday, named with three others in a 25-count indictment tied to to the theft of at least $10 million from U.S. companies, the U.S. Attorney’s Office says. He was extradicted from Poland. The Charlotte office of the FBI is leading the investigation.

According to a redacted copy of the indictment released after the court hearing, Chostak was part of a group that hacked into company bank accounts and transferred millions to Russia, Latvia, Ukraine and Moldova. The names of the other three defendants, who all lived overseas, were removed from the document.

The operation relied on innocent people who were duped into thinking they were being used for legitimate work. Ring leaders wired the stolen money to these so-called “money mules” – one was from Charlotte, another from Clover, S.C. – who were instructed to deposit it in their own accounts. They then withdrew the money and wired it to the conspirator’s partners overseas, the indictment says.

The Charlotte mule, who is not identified, joined the group in 2010 and held a bank account with SunTrust. The Clover participant came aboard a few months earlier with an account at Family Trust Federal Credit Union.

A third mule was from Wendell, near Raleigh, while others were hired from Pennsylvania, New Mexico and Kentucky. All went through an extensive interview process, and all had to have a U.S. bank account, the indictment says. The mules were only used once and never paid. In all, some 15,000 were recruited in the United States alone.

According to the indictment, the ring hacked into more than 750 accounts in a variety of U.S. banks. The stolen money was sent overseas through thousands of money transfers. Nearly 3,000 went through Western Union, the indictment says.

The indictment says the ring operated similar money-laundering schemes in Germany, Italy, the United Kingdom and Australia, among other companies.

Chostak, who had lived on and off in the United States and Ukraine, recruited and trained managers of the money-mule operation, federal investigators say. He and his alleged co-conspirators are charged with money laundering and money-laundering conspiracy, identify theft, computer fraud, among other crimes.

He is being held in the Mecklenburg County jail.

This story was originally published December 23, 2015 at 4:10 PM with the headline "Feds indict four in overseas money-laundering scheme."