Reissued cards and appropriated clients' funds: an organized criminal group of bankers exposed in Lviv region

Police officers and SBU employees have identified employees of one of the bank's branches who, without the knowledge of clients, reissued bank cards and withdrew money from accounts. The amount of damage exceeds one million hryvnias. The defendants face up to 6 years in prison.  This is reported by the National Police press service, writes UNN.

Cyberpolice of Lviv region together with investigators of the GUNP of the region and employees of the regional department of the SBU under the procedural guidance of the Lviv regional prosecutor's office in January exposed employees of one of the bank branches who appropriated funds from the accounts of a certain category of clients,

Details

It was established that six bank employees, including the head of the branch, organized an illegal scheme to seize funds stored in citizens' bank accounts during 2023-2024.

The attackers, having access to the data of clients who may be in temporarily occupied territories and in the southern and eastern regions of Ukraine, replaced the financial telephone numbers of clients with controlled ones. This gave bankers the opportunity to access the Internet banking system, reissue bank cards and carry out financial transactions on behalf of clients without their knowledge.

To create a visual effect of the victims' presence in the department when changing the financial number and reissuing the card, the perpetrators replaced the clients' photos using software.

After reissuing the bank card, the head of the department personally received it at the cash desk and subsequently cashed out the funds through ATMs or Pos-terminals directly at the department.

It was established that the defendants appropriated funds from 19 bank accounts without the knowledge of the legal owners. The total amount of damage is more than 1 million hryvnias

Police conducted a number of searches at the places of residence and registration of the defendants. Black records with information about bank clients' details, for which unauthorized financial transactions were carried out, bank cards, mobile phones, etc. were seized.

Currently, law enforcement officers have completed the pre-trial investigation and sent to court indictments against the defendants, depending on their role in the criminal scheme, under Part 3, 5 of Art. 27, Part 3 of Art. 28, Part 1, 3 of Art. 362 (Unauthorized actions with information processed in electronic computers (computers), automated systems, computer networks or stored on such information carriers, committed by a person who has the right to access it) of the Criminal Code of Ukraine.

The sanction of the article provides for imprisonment for a term of up to six years with deprivation of the right to hold certain positions or engage in certain activities for a term of up to three years.

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