Russian authorities have nabbed the man accused of masterminding a
coordinated global ATM heist of $9.5 million from Atlanta-based card processing
company RBS WorldPay.
Viktor Pleshchuk, 28, of St. Petersburg, was arrested by the Russian Federal
Security Service, or FSB, according to the Sunday Mail, which broke the story
last week in the United Kingdom.
The Financial Times confirmed the arrest this week, adding that Pleshchuk was
among “several suspects” arrested. The paper didn’t name the other suspects or
say when any of them were arrested. The arrests are being touted by some as
signaling a new era of cooperation between Russian and U.S. authorities.
Pleshchuk was indicted in the United States last November with Sergei
Tsurikov, 25, of Tallinn, Estonia; Oleg Covelin, 28, of Chisinau, Moldova; and a
fourth person identified only as “Hacker 3.” The government described the caper
as “perhaps the most sophisticated and organized computer fraud attack ever
conducted.”
