Student from Mykolaiv managed to steal more than UAH 5 million from a bank and launder it through Binance exchange

The Central District Court of Mykolaiv is considering the case of a fraudster who stole UAH 5.1 million from the Ukrainian bank Bank Vostok and laundered it through Binance, the world’s largest crypto exchange. The offender was a fourth-year student of the Petro Mohyla Black Sea National University.

The student and a group of accomplices were looking for acquaintances who registered new bank accounts through their own «Diia» and provided access (login/password) to their accounts in the Bank Vostok application. Having gained access to the bank accounts, the criminals made fictitious payments using the refund function, receiving the transferred funds back. «Due to the fact that the refund was made online, the criminals were able to use the available funds in the bank accounts before receiving confirmation from the payment systems,» the investigators explained.

When the money was credited to the cards, the student and his accomplices bought USDT on Binance using the P2P service. After that, they transferred the cryptocurrency to a custodial crypto wallet on the TRX network.

«Bank Vostok PJSC not only detected fraudulent actions related to refund transactions and successfully eliminated this vulnerability immediately on the day it was discovered, but is also making efforts to bring the attackers to justice,» the bank’s representatives said.

The organizer of the fraudulent scheme is currently in custody at the Mykolaiv Pretrial Detention Center. The amount of bail is UAH 4,962,000, which the fraudster’s father is ready to pay, but the court decided not to release the fraudster under house arrest because of the possibility of escape. Mykolaiv’s Mavrod, as the offender was nicknamed on social media, faces 5 to 12 years in prison with confiscation of property.