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11 Charged in Global Theft, Sale Of 40 Million Card Numbers
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This year, Gonzalez allegedly dumped 25 million distinct credit and debit card numbers onto a Ukrainian server and 16 million onto a Latvian server. The pilfered credit card information, some of which was stored on computer servers in the United States and Eastern Europe, was used to encode magnetic strips of blank cards, which were used to withdraw tens of thousands of dollars from ATMs.
Gonzalez had been arrested by the Secret Service in 2003 and later became a confidential informant for the agency. During the course of the hacking investigation, officials said they discovered that he allegedly was involved.
He and at least two others, who are in Turkey and Germany, have been detained. If convicted, Gonzalez could face life in prison.
Also yesterday, indictments were unsealed in San Diego against Maksym "Maksik" Yastremskiy of the Ukraine; Aleksandr "Jonny Hell" of Estonia; and Hung-Ming Chiu and Zhi Zhi Wang, both of China.
In San Diego, Sergey Pavolvich of Belarus, and Dzmitry Burak and Sergey Storchak of the Ukraine, were charged with conspiracy to traffic in unauthorized access devices. Two Miami men, Christopher Scott and Damon Patrick Toey, were also named as part of the conspiracy.
The indictments are the result of a three-year undercover investigation conducted out of the San Diego Field Office of the U.S. Secret Service.
The investigation involved the Justice Department; U.S. attorneys' offices for the District of Massachusetts, the Southern District of California and the Eastern District of New York; the Internal Revenue Service and the Secret Service.
"This truly has been a collaboration," said Secret Service Director Mark Sullivan. "This is the largest, most sophisticated identity-theft ring ever prosecuted by the DOJ."
Sullivan said that officials had taken over a Web site that various criminals were using and that this was the first time a computer system had been wiretapped.
Litan said the indictments are a "big victory" for law enforcement. "But the big question is, How many didn't they get?"
