A Hampton, New Hampshire, man has pleaded guilty to fraud charges for his role in a scheme to empty brokerage accounts by installing malicious Trojan horse software on victims’ computers.
According to court documents, Alexey Mineev set up several “drop accounts” that were then wired funds stolen from banking and brokerage accounts between July and December 2007. He pleaded guilty to one count of money laundering on Wednesday, according to Mike Ruocco, deputy to Judge Paul Gardephe of the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of New York, who is presiding in the case.
The criminals would infect PCs with malicious Trojan software that would steal account numbers and passwords whenever victims logged into their accounts online. Authorities say that another conspirator, Alexander Bobnev, would e-mail Mineev screenshots of the hacked accounts showing how much money was being transferred into Mineev’s drop account, along with instructions such as “Withdraw the money … tomorrow.”
