The true scale of the operation will never be known because one
of the gang managed to trip a switch while handcuffed which wiped
or encrypted all records of their past activity.
Anton Dolgov was a ringleader of the gang and was sentenced to
six years in prison at Harrow Crown Court in London. Dolgov is the
former head of the Moskovsky Gorodskoi Bank, or the Moscow City
Bank. Aleksei Kostap was sentenced to four years in jail.
Members of the gang pleaded guilty to conspiracy to defraud,
obtain services by deception acquire, use and possess criminal
property and conceal, disguise, convert, transfer or remove
criminal property.
The gang created false identities and stole credit card details
and then bought expensive goods, including top of the range
electronics, which they resold on eBay, according to the
prosecution case.
Police raided the gang's premises and arrested some of the
members, including Kostap. While handcuffed, Kostap leaped up and
flicked a switch which triggered the deletion of information on
databases and the encryption of other records.
That flick drew a veil over more than 10 years of activity,
police said, and destroyed vital evidence."It is quite clear that
the total amount of money defrauded will probably never be known,”
said David Hewitt of the Crown Prosecution Service. “These
conspirators were prolific identity creators running an organized
business.”
The raid was conducted by the Serious and Organised Crime Squad,
which was unable to break the gang's encryption. They were able to
trace three years' worth of activity, and found that the gang had
made £750,000 worth of transactions between 2003 and 2006.
The police believe the gang has been operating since the mid
1990s, so estimate that millions of pounds were taken over the
whole period. It targeted people in the US and Spain as well as the
UK, said police.
A third gang member, Romanos Vasilauskas, was jailed for 18
months and police said that they are still looking for a Mr
Kaliusaar, and have a warrant for his arrest.
