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Report: FSB Arrests Hackers in $9M Scam

The Federal Security Service has arrested several people on suspicion of hacking into a Scottish bank and stealing $9 million, the Financial Times reported Monday.

FSB officers detained Viktor Pleshchuk and several other unidentified people in connection with the theft from the Royal Bank of Scotland, the report said, citing unidentified people familiar with the case.

A U.S. grand jury in Atlanta indicted Pleshchuk in November, along with Sergei Tsurikov, an Estonian, and Oleg Covelin of Moldova, the Financial Times said.

Investigators believe that a crime group led by Pleshchuk and Tsurikov made counterfeit versions of the payroll debit cards distributed to employees of RBS customer companies and used them in a 12-hour period in late 2008 to withdraw cash from 2,100 ATMs in 280 cities.

The FSB made no comment about the report Monday.

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