MOSCOW, March 11 - RAPSI. The U.S. District Court for the Southern District of New York has rescheduled to March 16 the sentencing of Russian national Nikolai Garifulin charged with stealing $3 million from bank accounts, according to the court records made available to the Russian Legal Information agency (RAPSI/rapsinews.ru).
The initial sentencing date was March 9. The documents do not indicate the postponement reason.
Garifulin earlier admitted his involvement in the bank fraud.
According to the documents, Garifulin faces up to two years and nine months in prison. His defense attorney asked to sentence him to a term equal to the time he has already spent in custody, i.e. one year and four months.
Garifulin, 23, has pleaded guilty and stated that he will abstain from any further criminal activity. His attorney noted that his client is a professional economist who wants to return to Russia and continue his education after his sentence is read.
The U.S. Prosecutor General's Office and the FBI announced in September 2010 that they had uncovered a criminal network comprising immigrants from Eastern Europe.
Most of the suspects were aged 20-26. They came to the United States on student visas. All of them were suspected of stealing funds from U.S. bank accounts.
Investigators maintain that the suspects cracked bank accounts using virus software and then transferred the funds to other accounts. The funds were then withdrawn abroad.
On average, the suspects transferred $10,000 each time, according to the court documents. Generally speaking, they took 8-10 percent of the transaction amount and the remaining sum was distributed among the members of the criminal gang.
The suspects were also accused of collusion in committing bank fraud, money laundering, forging documents, using fake immigration documents, and illegal use of personal data.
Garifulin was accused of taking part in the collusion to commit bank fraud. He pleaded guilty in September.
Most of the suspects have already been convicted. However, their sentence turned out to be milder than the prosecution requested. In most cases, the court obligated the accused to pay the victims the amount of the caused losses.
In particular, the court recovered $21,000 from Russian citizen Marina Misyura in 2010. Russian citizen Dmitry Saprunova will have to pay back to the fraud victims $14,000. Ilya Karasev will have to pay almost $60,000.
One of the harshest sentences was passed against Kasum Adigyuzelov. He was sentenced to four years in prison last May. He will also have to pay about $284,000.
