Police in Bulgaria arrested a criminal gang of Bulgarians and Americans, which drained debit and credit cards of US citizens, National Police Service head Vesselin Petrov said on January 20 2008.
Police said they had proof that the gang had drained $400 000 (276 000 euro) from the cards, but the real sum could be more than 10 times higher, an Interior Ministry media statement said.
Three of the gang’s leading members had been arrested, mediapool.bg said.
The leader was a 26-year-old Bulgarian from Varna. He set up the schemes and recruited the other members of the gang, but he did not have a previous criminal record.
The gang included three male and a female US citizens and around ten Bulgarians. A policeman from the anti-organised crime department of the Varna police was an accomplice of the gang. Petrov refused to name the policeman.
Varna police investigated the gang for six months in co-operation with the US Secret Services.
The gang used data provided by hackers. It used three schemes to drain the money. Until the end of 2006, the gang withdrew only small sums under $20 (13.8 euro) from US bank accounts. The money was transferred to an account of a virtual company, registered by the gang leader, from where it was transferred to accounts of Bulgarian citizens in the US. The Bulgarians sent the money to Bulgaria via Western Union or bank transfers.
After 2006, the gang started draining sums of up to $100 000 (69 000 euro), using peculiarities in the legislation of some US states. The money followed the same track to Bulgaria.
From February 2008, the gang was to launch a third scheme, which would make use of access to database at national level in the US after the registration of detective agencies. Once the agencies were be licensed, they would be grantedaccess to the database, which would provide them with information they could use to drain bank accounts.
The three arrested were accused of organising and taking part in an organised crime gang, which aimed to launder money in especially large quantities, deputy regional prosecutor for Varna Stefka Yakimova said. Two of the three have been accused of black mail.
