Have you heard about the latest drama from Miami? It’s like something straight out of a movie! The main character? A gang leader named Esteban Cabrera Da Corte. His claim to fame? Masterminding a sneaky cryptocurrency scam that swindled over $4 million from US banks and a crypto exchange. Talk about a high-stakes heist!
So, what went down? On November 29th, 2023, a New York federal court handed Esteban a 63-month ticket to prison. His crime? Orchestrating a clever ruse where he and his buddies used stolen identities to fake out financial institutions, tricking them into coughing up refunds.
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The US attorney, Damian Williams, laid it out pretty clearly: Esteban was the puppet master behind this million-dollar scheme. He used fake and stolen identities to buy cryptocurrency, then played a game of deception with the banks about those transactions.
Now, picture this: Esteban, a 27-year-old from Miami, is sitting behind bars for this scam he ran back in 2020. He used all sorts of shady tactics like stolen personal info and counterfeit driver’s licenses and passports. The plot thickens when he and two other suspects got nabbed in 2022, right in the middle of a US crackdown on crypto crimes.
The twist? Esteban and his gang bought a whopping $4 million in cryptocurrency, then – get this – they duped a major platform and several banks into thinking those buys were unauthorized. The banks fell for it and put the money right back into accounts the gang controlled. Sneaky, right?
This little trick let the gang double their loot – they kept the crypto and pocketed the refunds. Talk about having your cake and eating it, too!
But here’s where it gets really intricate. The accounts they used for this whole operation were all connected. They’d make cash deposits at ATMs, buy digital currency, and then swiftly transfer it to separate wallets. Pretty clever, huh?
The Department of Justice (DoJ) spilled the beans on their tactics: after moving the cryptocurrency, these guys would call the banks, playing innocent and claiming those purchases were never authorized. This bamboozled the banks into reversing the transactions.
And the cherry on top? The DoJ announced that Esteban has to cough up more than $4.7 million in restitution and forfeitures. That’s their way of saying, “Sorry, buddy, crime doesn’t pay!”
So there you have it – a real-life tale of cunning, deception, and a reminder that, in the end, the bad guys don’t always get away with it.
"Amateurs hack systems, professionals hack people."
-- Bruce Schneier, a renown computer security professional
