WASHINGTON, Feb 12: A Pakistani national has pleaded guilty to money laundering of over USD 19 million on behalf of the perpetrators of a massive international computer hacking and telecommunications fraud scheme in the US.
Muhammad Sohail Qasmani, 47, who was arrested at Los Angeles International Airport after he arrived on a flight from Bangkok in December 2014, now faces up to 20 years of imprisonment and a fine up to USD 250,000. His sentencing is scheduled for May.
His co-conspirator Noor Aziz, 53, of Karachi, was indicted on June 20, 2012 and remains a fugitive.
According to court documents, Aziz was involved in an unauthorised access to the computer systems – commonly known as PBX systems – that ran the internal telephone networks of numerous businesses and organisations in the US.
Foreign-based hackers targeted the telephone systems of the victim corporations and placed calls to those systems in an attempt to identify unused telephone extensions.
Once the hackers identified unused extensions, they illegally reprogrammed the telephone systems so that they could be used to make unlimited long distance calls, all of which were ultimately charged back to the victim corporations.
The hacked telephone systems were then used to make calls to premium telephone numbers – such as purported chat lines, adult entertainment, and psychic hotlines – that generated revenue based on the calls’ duration and were set up and controlled by Aziz.
In reality, the numbers provided no actual services.
Telephone company representatives who suspected fraudulent activity and called the numbers heard recordings of fake rings, fake password prompts, fake voicemail messages, music, or dead air on continuous loops.
In 2008, Qasmani, who operated a money laundering and smuggling business in Thailand, agreed to launder proceeds of the scheme for Aziz. In furtherance of the conspiracy, Qasmani established multiple bank accounts to receive the money generated by the illicit telephone traffic.
Qasmani also paid the hackers and dialers who worked for Aziz to keep the scheme going.
Specifically, over nearly four years, Qasmani initiated money transfers to approximately 650 unique transferees, located in at least 10 countries, including the Philippines, India, Pakistan, Malaysia, China, the UAE, Saudi Arabia, Indonesia, Thailand, and Italy.
Qasmani moved a total of approximately USD 19.6 million in fraud proceeds from November 2008 through December 31, 2012. He kept laundering the money even after Aziz was arrested in connection with this scheme and later released by foreign authorities. (PTI)
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