MOSCOW, October 15 (RIA Novosti) – Russian police have busted a gang responsible for flooding the country’s ATMs with forged cash, forcing some of Russia’s biggest banks to stop accepting certain banknotes.
The suspects were caught on film by surveillance cameras installed in the ATMs they targeted, a spokesman for Interior Ministry’s economic crimes department said.
After photo-fit images were circulated nationwide, the suspects – seven Uzbekistan nationals aged between 22 and 32 – were busted in St. Petersburg’s Pulkovo Airport, Kommersant daily reported Tuesday. They offered no resistance.
The forgers printed 5,000-ruble ($155) banknotes – the biggest denomination available – on a regular printer using paper without watermarks, the police spokesman said Monday.
But the notes copied all the other anti-counterfeit marks that ATMs check for, he said.
The group loaded the ATMs with fake cash and then withdrew real money, taking a total of 8.5 million rubles ($263,000) within two weeks.
Another 15 million rubles ($465,000) in fake money was found on them during arrest.
If found guilty of counterfeiting, the suspects, who have not yet been charged, face up to 15 years in prison, the Interior Ministry said on its website.
A sudden increase in fake notes found prompted Russia’s biggest bank, Sberbank, as well as major banks VTB24, Bank of Moscow and Alfa Bank last week to make their Moscow ATMs to stop taking 5,000-ruble notes. This decision was met with much grumbling on social networks, given that such notes are still widely used in Russia, including for salary payments.
Certain Russian banks have long neglected to upgrade their ATM security systems and are now paying the price, Central Bank chief Elvira Nabiullina said on Russia-24 television Monday.
