Ukrainian credit card racketeer wanted by FBI held at Delhi airport

A Ukrainian fraudster, a global online fraud of enormous proportions, the Federal Bureau of Investigation and a worldwide chase that ended in India. HT Correspondent reports.

A Ukrainian fraudster, a global online fraud of enormous proportions, the Federal Bureau of Investigation and a worldwide chase that ended in India.

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The fraudster's nemesis -- the Central Industrial Security Force (CISF).

Sergey V Storchak, wanted in the United States in connection with an inter-continental credit card fraud case, was part of a 10-member gang who allegedly stole and sold more than four crore credit and debit card numbers.

The FBI had issued a lookout circular (LoC) against Storchak.

According to US documents, the gang drove close to retail stores in search of wireless Internet connections on which they installed "sniffer" software that would record card numbers.

After this, they allegedly sold the numbers over the Internet to individuals who encoded them on to blank credit cards and withdrew huge cash at a time from ATMs.

One of the affected companies, British retail chain TK Maxx, had earlier reported to have admitted that information from 45.7 million credit and debit cards on both sides of the Atlantic had been stolen.

The gang's operations spanned across the US, Eastern Europe and Asia. A criminal case has been filed against Storchak and others in the US.

The FBI had informed the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) about the presence of Storchak in the country a few days ago.

Storchak was arrested by the CBI and was produced before a magistrate on May 9 and sent to judicial custody till May 22.

A statement from the CBI said that Storchak's arrest was significant as his extradition and prosecution would have been very unlikely if he reached his final destination in Ukraine.

"The officials concerned in the US Embassy in New Delhi have been suitably briefed as per Extradition Treaty for procurement of 'Extradition Documents' so that Ministry of External Affairs could set up the extradition court," the CBI's statement read.