The defendant in the BankIslami ATM theft incident that occurred in 2018 has been sentenced to more than 11 years in prison, according to the United States Department of Justice.
Ghaleb Alaumary, a dual Canadian-American citizen, was sentenced on September 8 after pleading guilty to two charges of conspiracy to commit money laundering in two separate cases, according to a press statement released by the Department of Justice.
Additionally, the court ordered Alaumary to pay $30 million in restitution to the victims, on top of his prison sentence of five years.
In the first instance, Alaumary and his co-conspirators were involved in a number of money-laundering operations, including the 2018 theft of an ATM from BankIslami in Pakistan and the 2019 cyber-heist of a Maltese bank.
In October 2018, hackers gained access to 6,000 BankIslami accounts and stole $6 million in under 23 minutes.
In response to the sentencing, BankIslami published a statement claiming that the case was a triumph that demonstrated how “forensics, international law, and cybersecurity can enable remedy for Pakistani enterprises even when they are located in foreign countries.”
According to the Department of Justice, “Alaumary recruited and organised individuals to withdraw stolen cash from ATMs; he provided bank accounts that received funds from bank cyber-heists and fraud schemes; and, once the ill-gotten funds were in accounts under his control, Alaumary further laundered the funds through wire transfers, cash withdrawals, and the exchange of funds for cryptocurrency.”
The thief’s other victims included businesses in the United States and the United Kingdom, an Indian bank, and a sports club in the United Kingdom.
