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ATM Skimmer Scheme Lands Bulgarian Citizen 3+ Years in Prison
Baltimore, MD – A Bulgarian national has been sentenced to 39 months in prison for conspiring to commit bank fraud and aggravated identity theft in connection with an ATM skimming scheme.
Bozhidar Lazarov, 40, was sentenced by U.S. District Judge Catherine C. Blake on [date] and ordered to pay restitution of $54,883. Lazarov, a resident of Chicago, Illinois, was found guilty of conspiring to commit bank fraud and aggravated identity theft.
According to his guilty plea, Lazarov and others obtained debit and credit card account numbers by placing ATM skimmers over the slot where customers inserted their debit or credit cards. The conspirators used a miniature camera to capture personal identification numbers (PINs) as the customers entered them on the keypad.
Lazarov and others then encoded the magnetic strips of plastic cards, such as gift cards, with the compromised account numbers and information which they used, along with the corresponding PIN numbers, to make unauthorized cash withdrawals directly from the victims’ bank accounts.
For example, on May 29 and 30, 2010, co-conspirator Stoycho Lazarov, who is Bozhidar’s brother, installed an ATM skimmer on bank ATMs in Westminster and Finksburg, Maryland, which Bozhidar Lazarov removed a few hours later. Bozhidar Lazarov and others used the stolen debit card numbers and PINs to withdraw at least $30,536 from 20 victims’ accounts.
Stoycho Ivanov Lazarov, age 41, a Bulgarian citizen residing in Millersville, Maryland, previously pleaded guilty to the same charges, and was sentenced to four years in prison and ordered to pay restitution of $185,512.
United States Attorney Rod J. Rosenstein thanked the U.S. Secret Service for its work in the investigation and praised Assistant U.S. Attorneys Kristi N. O’Malley and Tamera Fine, who prosecuted the case.
This sentence is part of efforts underway by President Obama’s Financial Fraud Enforcement Task Force (FFETF) to investigate and prosecute financial crimes.
Key Facts
- State: Maryland
- Category: Fraud & Financial Crimes|Cybercrime|White Collar Crime
- Source: DOJ Press Release ↗
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