A Turkish national once considered the world’s top cyber fugitive pleaded guilty Tuesday to orchestrating a theft ring that pulled $55 million out of ATM machines in New York City and across the globe.
Ercan Findikoglu, also known as “Segate” or “Predator” online, manipulated prepaid debit-card accounts and then deployed withdrawal squads to raid cash machines.
Findikoglu, who managed to elude an international manhunt for four years, now faces up to 14 years in prison as part of a plea deal.
Speaking with a heavy Turkish accent, the polite fraudster told Brooklyn federal court Judge Kiyo Matsumoto that he knowingly executed the fraud and was well aware that it was illegal.
“I agreed with others to target prepaid debit-card accounts . . . and increased the account balances of those prepaid debit-card accounts so that co conspirators could use the compromised accounts to withdraw currency,” he told the court.
Findikoglu, 34, and his crew hacked into the networks of payment-card processors and removed withdrawal limits on accounts and increased balances, court papers state.
He then attached those accounts to physical debit cards and had his foot soldiers withdraw cash from ATM machines.
Prosecutors said his organization carried out heists in short, frenetic bursts, often clearing millions of dollars in just days by conducting thousands of ATM transactions at a time.
In one breathtaking two-day operation in February 2013, Findikoglu’s crew conducted 36,000 transactions in 24 countries and cleared $40 million, prosecutors said.
In a separate 2012 operation, the local branch of Findikoglu’s group yanked $400,000 out of New York City ATMs in a matter of hours, prosecutors said.
In total, the group stole a total of $2.8 million from New York banks over the course of the scheme, which hit 26 cities from 2010 to 2013.
The criminal mastermind — who told the court he never advanced past high school — managed to avoid capture for years before he was finally apprehended in Germany in 2013.
He then successfully fended off extradition for 18 months before finally being shipped to Brooklyn to face charges.
Findikoglu will be sentenced in July and will be deported back to Turkey at the end of his sentence.
While the plea deal is relatively lenient considering the breadth of the theft, Findikoglu was ordered to pay back the $55 million he stole.
Thirteen of his co-conspirators had already pleaded guilty before his appearance Tuesday.