A Ukrainian man accused of being the head of a money laundering and fraud operation was extradited to the United States after being arrested in South Korea, the U.S. Department of Justice announced.
The man, Aleksandr Musienko, aka “Oleksandr Serhiyovych Musiyenko,” “Robert Davis,” and “Ply,” conducted the illicit operation from 2009 through at least 2012, the DoJ indictment claims. The international money laundering and fraud scheme targeted U.S. corporations and individuals.
According to the indictment, Musienko worked with overseas cybercriminals who had hacked and stolen money from the online bank accounts of numerous individual and corporate victims in the United States.
Musienko established a network of “money mules” throughout the United States, using aliases such as “Robert Davis” and phony front companies that included “Vita Finance AG” and “Hilpert AG.”
To recruit money mules, he fraudulently advertised bogus “employment” opportunities to work as “Financial Assistants,” and used other illicit techniques as well. He allegedly promised to pay the money mules around 5% of the each completed overseas wire transfer.
Musienko used this money mule network to offer illegal services to cybercriminal partners, to help them transfer stolen funds. The money mules were directed to use their own bank accounts to receive and transfer proceeds from compromised bank accounts.
The criminal money mule operation was used to steal and launder at least $2.8 million from 2009 to 2012, the DoJ indictment reveals.
Musienko was charged with one count of wire fraud, one count of bank fraud, one count of money laundering conspiracy, and two counts of money laundering.
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Ionut Arghire is an international correspondent for SecurityWeek.
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