In the UK 20 computer hackers from Eastern Europe, permanent residents of the UK were arrested on suspicion of stealing millions of pounds from bank accounts. As reported by the police, they were born in Belarus, Georgia, Latvia, Ukraine and Estonia.
Eight of the detainees — Belarusian Eduard Babaryka, Latvians Karina Kostromina, Ivars Poykan and Kaspars Klematneks, Ukrainians Yuri Korovalenko, Eugen Kulibaba and Roman Zenyka and Estonian Alexander Kusner were charged with conspiracy to fraud and money laundering, the BBC reports.
Two natives of Ukraine — Valeri Milka and Irina Prakochik were charged with conspiracy to fraud only. Georgian Zurab Revazishvili was accused of violating the law on identity cards. All of them are in custody and must appear before Westminster magistrate’s court. The detainees’ age varies from 23 to 34 years. In addition, another nine people were detained in the same case, were released on bail.
According to the investigation, the hackers were engaged in fraud in the UK from October 13, 2009 to September 28, 2010. They attacked HSBC, Royal Bank of Scotland, Barclays and Lloyds TSB. Criminals were arrested by the Chief Police Unit to combat Internet crime.
It is currently known about the theft of £6 million (about $ 9 million). Infecting with virus program thousands of British computers, they had been stealing passwords to access personal bank accounts via the Internet and removing their money. According to law enforcement agencies, the total amount stolen is much higher than the above mentioned amount and is likely to increase significantly with the investigation.
