US jails ATM hacker Imran Elahi for part in $23m heists
Imran Elahi pleaded guilty last year to access device fraud and conspiracy, largely for his involvement in two precision strikes: a US$9 million heist in 2008 involving RBS WorldPay and a US$14 million hack in 2011 against Fidelity Information Services.
A Pakistani man who participated in two multimillion-dollar ATM heists targeting debit card processors was sentenced in US federal court in New York to 18 months in prison.
The cybercrimes were strikingly similar to the US$45 million global ATM heist that federal prosecutors in New York revealed last month, when US Attorney Loretta Lynch charged eight defendants with using stolen debit cards at thousands of automated teller machines worldwide over a period of hours in a coordinated attack.
That effort involved MasterCard prepaid debit cards issued by Bank Muscat of Oman and National Bank of Ras Al Khaimah, or Rakbank, of the United Arab Emirates.
In court on Friday, prosecutors praised Elahi for agreeing to co-operate with the government.
Elahi's case was sealed until recently, and details of his co-operation remain undisclosed.