Eight students sentenced to prison for hacking into a TRNC bank and fraudulently obtaining 24 million Turkish Lira

Eight individuals who were arrested and tried for hacking into the system of a bank's branch in Güzelyurt north Cyprus and stole 24 million TL on Thursday found guilty of 29 charges. 

The sentence against the defendants identified as ASA, a Nigerian, ABA, a Nigerian JM, a Rwandan, TNM, a South African, PF, a South African, WBZ, a Zimbabwean, LKM, a Zimbabwean and AMMA, a Sudanese was announce by a judge at the Lefkosa high criminal court on Thursday November 7, 2024.

They were facing charges of "obtaining money through fraudulent behavior.

Announcing the judgement, the senior judge said the sentence was the unanimous decision of the panel of judges.

The judge said that the defendants committed fraud through the information system by exploiting the gap in the banking system and laundering the proceeds of crime.

Noting that the defendants caused the bank a very serious amount of loss, the judge said, “Banks are trusted institutions where people deposit their money and this crime has harmed the public interest, especially when we consider that the crime of laundering the proceeds of crime is increasingly widespread all over the world and in our country.

It is necessary to give deterrent sentences by prioritizing the public interest in such serious crimes that closely concern the public interest. Of course, each issue should be considered within its own facts and depending on the personal situations of the defendants and the manner and gravity of the crime.”

The judge noted that the suspect, OSO, a Nigeria was the one who noticed and took advantage of the loophole in the Worldremit money transfer system in the bank’s accounts, noting that the roles assumed by the defendants in committing the crimes were different.

The judge said that for this reason, they concluded that it would be appropriate and fair to make a distinction when determining the punishment for the defendants.

The judge said that OSO and the other seven defendants were directly connected, that they enabled and facilitated the commission of the crime by allowing their accounts to be used and sharing the special passwords given to them by the bank, that they made fake money transfers and ensured that the money coming into their accounts was transferred to other accounts.

The judge stated that WBZ, on the other hand, committed fraud by using the account of one MPMA, a South African and that she had no direct connection with OSO but indirect connection with the defendant ASA. 

The judge stated that all the defendants were in the category of young offenders, lacking life experience and without a criminal record, and that by admitting their crimes they contributed to the early advent of justice, and that these issues were evaluated in their favor.

The judge noted that JM, a very young person of 21 years of age, met OSO and committed the crime by allowing him to use her account to deliver items to his family and to bring items to him from them. The judge also stated that the defendant compensated the complainant bank for the loss.

He explained that the defendants, PF and NPMA were in the country without a residence permit from September 30, 2020 to November 29, 2023 and committed such serious and grave crimes while they were staying in the country illegally.

“All of the defendants came to our country as students and were involved in such grave and serious crimes. As we have stated in other matters, it is unacceptable for foreigners to come to a country for education purposes and then commit such serious crimes. It is clear that the punishment given to the defendants should be a punishment that restricts their freedom due to the seriousness and seriousness of the crimes committed by the defendants and the serious harm done to the public interest in this regard", the judge said. “We find it appropriate and fair to give the defendants a punishment that restricts their freedom” he added.

Noting that they observed that large amounts of income were being obtained illegally in the world and unfortunately in the TRNC, the judge said, “The source of the income in question is mostly narcotics, arms smuggling, explosives, and human trafficking. As can be seen, the source of dirty money is illegal and especially serious crimes, and drug trafficking is at the top of these crimes. In the case before us, the proceeds of crime were processed by defrauding the complainant bank through the information system, in addition to the generalization we have stated.”

The judge explained that when deciding on the length of the prison sentence to be given to the defendants, they reviewed the maximum sentences for the crimes, the seriousness of the crimes, the gravity of the way they were committed, all the factors taken into account for and against the defendant, the length of time they spent in detention, and the fact that they would be serving their sentences away from their families and in a prison in a country whose language they did not speak.

The judge announced that they sentenced ASA to 4 years, ABA to 4 years, JM to 2 years, TNM to 3 years, PF to 4 years, WBZ to 4 years, LKM to 3 years and AMMA to 3 years in prison.