The U.S. Federal Bureau of Investigation has officially informed the Russian Consulate General on the detainment of four Russian citizens suspected of a large-scale banking fraud, a Russian vice consul said, RIA Novosti reported.
The Attorney's Office for the Southern District of New York said on Friday that a total of 25 Russians have been charged in a large-scale banking fraud case in the United States.
"We have received an official notification from the FBI on the detainment of four Russian and two Moldovan citizens on September 30 suspected of conspiracy to commit bank fraud and the use of forged passports," Alexander Otchainov said.
The four Russian names in the notification are Adel Gataullin, Maxim Miroshnichenko, Kristina Svechinskaya and Yulia Sidorenko and the Moldovan citizens are Viktoria Opinka and Alina Turuta.
When asked about a great mismatch in the number of detained Russians stated by the attorney's office and the official FBI notification, Otchainov said that perhaps the part of the detained could have Russian names but could not be citizens of Russia.
"The Russian Consulate General will be inquiring in the detention of other possibly Russian citizens and if it turns out that they are really the holders of the Russian citizenship then we will be filling a complaint with the U.S. Department of State since we have no other information besides the detention of four mentioned above Russians," he said.
The Russians are believed to have been involved in a global cyber crime scheme that resulted in over $3 million being stolen from U.S. bank accounts. Charges brought against them include conspiracy to commit bank fraud, money laundering and passport fraud.
Prosecutors said most of the detainees had been used by East European hackers as "money mules" to open bank accounts later used to receive and transfer the stolen funds. They may face up to 30 years in prison as well as fines of up to $1 million.
The fraudulent scheme used the Zeus Trojan virus. When computer users clicked on a link or opened an attached file, malware was activated, which noted usernames and passwords that the victims typed on infected computers, the FBI said.