Cybercrime: The Office of the Attorney General of Switzerland files an indictment in connection with a number of cases of social engineering, in particular of bogus bank technician scams
Bern, 09.04.2024 - On 4 April 2024, the Office of the Attorney General of Switzerland has filed an indictment in the Federal Criminal Court against a French-Israeli citizen in connection with a series of cybercrime attacks carried out against Swiss companies. The defendant is accused of taking an active part in numerous cases of social engineering, particularly bogus bank technician scams, contributing decisively to the misappropriation of more than CHF 5 million from the bank accounts of various companies based in Switzerland.
Case context
Following a significant series of bogus bank technician fraud cases targeting French-speaking Switzerland between 2016 and 2018, the Office of the Attorney General of Switzerland (OAG) opened a criminal investigation in June 2017 against persons unknown at request of the Neuchâtel public prosecutor's office, which had been in charge of the case up to that point. The perpetrators, apparently based in Israel, are believed to have carried out social engineering activities with the aim of misappropriating several million Swiss francs from bank accounts of various companies located in Switzerland and transferring the money to accounts in Switzerland and abroad. Several investigations relating to same perpetrators that had been opened in various cantons in the French-speaking part of Switzerland have since been taken over by the OAG and merged with the federal proceedings.
The investigation was conducted in close cooperation with fedpol investigators, the private sector (in particular the banks of the victim companies), and the cantons, as well as with other countries, primarily by means of a number of international requests for mutual assistance. Thanks to this national and international collaboration, the investigations were successful in identifying one of the perpetrators. The OAG obtained an international arrest warrant for this suspect on 4 October 2021, and he was arrested in the night of 31 January / 1 February 2022 at Newark Airport in the USA. Subject to a request for extradition executed in April 2022, he was detained in Switzerland until 14 December 2022, when he was released on bail.
In addition, technical surveillance of internet telecommunications allowed potential victims to be identified and alerted before the perpetrators were able to misappropriate funds from their accounts. In this way, the misappropriation of around CHF 3 million was successfully prevented.
Indictment
The OAG has filed the indictment against the French-Israeli citizen on charges of theft of data (Art. 143 Swiss Criminal Code (SCC)), unauthorised access to a computer system (Art. 143bis para. 1 and 2 SCC) and computer fraud on a professional basis (Art. 147 para. 1 and 2 SCC).
The defendant is accused of having contacted, between December 2016 and August 2018, in his capacity as a member of a group engaged in social engineering activities, numerous companies located in Switzerland posing as an employee of their banks. Under the pretext of having to modify (migrate) the e-banking system, he is alleged to have induced the employee responsible for payments to unwittingly grant him access to their computers by means of an abbreviated URL address, thereby installing remote control software. He thus enabled other members of the group, who have not been identified despite the investigations and the requests for mutual assistance, to open one or more e-banking sessions on the accounts of targeted companies and thereby order the transfer of substantial sums of money from these accounts to bank accounts under their control in Switzerland and abroad. In this way, the defendant, between December 2016 and August 2018, contributed actively and decisively to the offences of misappropriation committed by the other perpetrators of a total of more than CHF 5 million to the detriment of seven companies located in Switzerland, as well as to numerous other attempted acts of misappropriation.
The Office of the Attorney General of Switzerland will present its submissions at the trial.
The matter is now in the hands of the court. The presumption of innocence applies to all those involved until a final judgment has been issued.
With the filing of the indictment, the FCC has sole responsibility for providing further information.
Original version of the text in French.
Address for enquiries
Communications Service of the Office of the Attorney General of Switzerland, Ph. +41 58 464 32 40, info@ba.admin.ch
Publisher
Office of the Attorney General of Switzerland
http://www.ba.admin.ch/
