8 New York Men Charged In $42 Million International Cyber Bank Heist

The United States government on Thursday charged eight men from New York for their participation in an international conspiracy involving a high-tech theft ring that launched cyber attacks on financial institutions around the world, resulting in losses estimated at $45 million.

Authorities today took into custody seven of the eight-man crew associated with the e-bank heist. The men are facing charges of alleged conspiracy to commit access device fraud, money laundering conspiracy and money laundering as part of a scheme dubbed the "unlimited operation." For their part in the plot, the men are accused of withdrawing nearly $3 million from ATM machines across New York City, according to an indictment filed by United States Attorney Loretta Lynch.

The defendents in this case include Jael Meja Collado, Joan Luis Miner Lara, Evan Jose Peña, Jose Familia Reyes, Elvis Rafael Rodriguez, Emir Yasser Yeje, Chung Yu-Holguin and alleged ringleader of the "cashing crew" Alberto Yusi Lajud-Peña. Lajud-Peña, also known as "Prime," was murdered in the Dominican Republic on April 27, though it is unclear whether there was any connection between his murder and the cybercrimes.

All of the suspects, who range in age from 22 to 34 are United States citizens originally from the Dominican Republic. They are all from Yonkers, NY and according to Lynch knew each other and were recruited to take part together in what Lynch has referred to as "a massive 21st Century bank heist."

"The defendants and their co-conspirators participated in a massive 21st century bank heist that reached across the Internet and stretched around the globe," Lynch said. "In the place of guns and masks, this cybercrime organization used laptops and the Internet."

The men arrested today represent only a very small subset of members in the extensive International cybercrime network responsible for the big-picture theft, a group believed to be headquartered outside of the United States. This is the network responsible for two incidents that targeted banks in at least 26 different countries and resulted in the $45 million theft.

The sophisticated "unlimited operation" scheme is comprised of three different groups of criminals. The "backers" are the financiers of the operation who pay big bucks to the "hackers" who use their computers to break into the databases of various financial institutions to obtain access codes, PIN numbers for debit cards and to remove any withdrawal limits that may be placed on individual bank accounts. The hackers then pass all of this information on to the "cashers" or "cashing crews" who are later dispatched simultaneously en masse to withdraw funds from all of the compromised accounts using ATM machines in cities all over the globe.

In this specific case the $45 million in stolen money was the result of two separate attacks, one which took place in December 2012 and the other in February 2013.

The December attack targeted a bank in India and the subsequent withdrawals totalled $5 million from bank accounts around the world. The February attack targeted a Visa and Mastercard processor in the United States and led to a $40 million loss.

John Miller, senior correspondent for CBS News and a former FBI assistant director reported today on "CBS This Morning" that "we've learned how they carried out this cyber-attacks, and it's unlike anything ever seen before."

"You know, this is -- if you're a criminal, this is a gorgeous scheme. If you are a bank this is your worst nightmare. And if you're a prosecutor...or the Secret Service agents involved in this case, it's a great caper, in terms of the case, but you realize you're just at the tip of the iceberg."