A Pakistani citizen has admitted laundering some $20 million on behalf of the masterminds of a massive international computer hacking and telecommunications fraud scheme that went on for 4 years before he was arrested at Los Angeles Airport in December 2014.
Muhammad Sohail Qasmani, 47, formerly of Bangkok, Thailand, pleaded guilty Feb. 11, before U.S. District Judge Katharine S. Hayden to one count of conspiracy to commit wire fraud. He is detained without bail, U.S. Attorney for the District of New Jersey Paul J. Fishman announced. The count of conspiracy to commit wire fraud carries a maximum potential penalty of 20 years in prison and a $250,000 fine. Sentencing is scheduled for May 17.
“Today, he (Qasmani) admitted moving over $19 million in illicit proceeds across 10 countries and ensuring the dialers and hackers who perpetuated the scheme received their cut.,” Fishman said in a press release.
This fraud scheme, allegedly led by Noor Aziz, 53, of Karachi, the brain behind the intricate fraud that involved unauthorized access to the computer systems – commonly known as PBX systems – which ran the internal telephone networks of numerous businesses and organizations in the U.S.
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 fraud chat lines, adult entertainment, and psychic hotlines – that generated revenue based on the calls’ duration and were set up and controlled by Aziz. In actuality, 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. Qasmani then set up multiple bank accounts to receive the money generated by the illicit telephone traffic. He also paid the hackers and dialers who worked for Aziz to keep the scheme going.
Qasmani initiated money transfers to approximately 650 unique transferees, located in at least 10 countries, including India, Pakistan and China.
He moved a total of approximately $19.6 million in fraud proceeds. from Nov. 2008 through Dec. 31, 2012.
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