Money is the universal equivalent of values. Despite its commonality, the equivalent is clearly inconvenient, and often easily accessible to people seeking easy gain.
However, criminals are always confronted, yes confronted, by specialists who wanted to secure the process of transportation of money. So they invented electronic money. Money in one account can be easily transferred to another account of any bank located on the other side of the world. Electronic transfers have become the backbone of any country's economy.
Initially, the leader of electronic payments was Metropolitan Bank.
On the morning of May 20, 1994, bank director Craig Connery urgently called Michael Polonsky, head of computer services, to his office. Connery received a call from a bank depositor who reported that a large sum of money had disappeared from his account.
Polonsky was sure it was a computer glitch. No one could penetrate the bank's trusted computer through a system of secret codes. Craig Connery instructed the main group of engineers to test the bank's main computer. After checking everything, the programmers found a few more suspicious transfers.
Michael Polonsky had alerted the bank's director to the penetration of an electronic intruder into the Metropolitan Bank's main computer. Connery knew that this crime could cause paralysis of the world's banking system and then a financial crisis.
Connery turns to FBI Deputy Director Peter Apolinaris. An emergency meeting is held with the heads of the various branches of the FBI.
Meanwhile, money has been disappearing from the bank every five minutes. That's exactly how long it takes to type in the top-secret passwords and codes that give access to the accounts on a computer.
The only thing the FBI could ensure was the strict secrecy of what was going on at Metropolitan Bank. FBI Detective Calvin Parsons was assigned to investigate the case.
Parsons made inquiries to banks in Holland, Israel, Luxembourg. That's where the unknown hacker transferred the stolen money from Metropolitan Bank to third-party accounts. The only way to get on the trail of the criminals was to wait.
Soon from the bank of San Francisco reported: a woman called the bank Ekaterina Shchebelkova and asked whether the money was transferred to her account. An hour later, another woman in Rotterdam, Lusiana Koltenko, a Russian citizen, inquired about the transfer of money to her account. In Luxembourg, Vladimir Denisenko was interested in the stolen money, and in Tel Aviv, Alexei Vyazemsky. Several million dollars were transferred to Vyazemsky's accounts. The overall picture of the crime was beginning to emerge.
The suspects in different countries, to whose accounts huge sums of money were transferred, decided to detain at the same time. The chance to arrest the ringleader remained in this case. Immediately after the arrest, all the suspects were brought to the U.S., but all the arrested were silent. The detectives found out that all the detainees had tickets to St. Petersburg booked for the near future.
The FBI leadership has been in contact with the leadership of the Russian Interior Ministry. Only Russian special services could help in catching the criminal.
All those arrested had to call their ringleader that they were flying out of San Francisco, Luxembourg, Rotterdam and Tel Aviv. Not waiting for the call, the ringleader could call one of these cities or the Metropolitan Bank. For this reason, all calls abroad were put on a wiretap.
Soon operatives learned: at 22:15 from St. Petersburg someone from the commercial firm “Neptune” called the Metropolitan Bank of New York. They quickly found the address of the firm, and sent a task force there for surveillance.
In the office of the firm “Neptune” was only one person, 24-year-old Vladimir Levin. He was sitting at his computer, and periodically accessed the global world network Internet. There was no doubt: it was Vladimir Levin who was the ringleader of the criminal group.
However, at that time in Russia there were no criminal articles on this crime in the Criminal Code of the Russian Federation. Thus, it was impossible to punish the hacker in our country.
After failing to receive a call from his accomplices, Levin went home. From his home, the hacker called a certain artist, Mikhail Slavkin, and asked for a meeting in one of the small parks in St. Petersburg.
At 11 o'clock in the afternoon Slavkin appeared in the park, and sat down on one of the benches, a few minutes later Levin approached him. An operative with a hidden camera sat down with the friends and recorded the entire conversation.
Levin informed Slavkin that his accomplices had cheated him. Now he wants Slavkin to open a foreign currency account in one of the branches of Sberbank in St. Petersburg. When the money arrives, Mikhail should withdraw the money, give it to Levin, and keep a certain amount for himself.
Returning home after the meeting with Slavkin, Levin called from a pay phone a certain Sergei Baryshev, who worked as a waiter in one of the cafes on Vasilievsky Island. In a few minutes Baryshev left the cafe. The same conversation as with Slavkin took place with the waiter Baryshev.
Levin made three transfers to different branches of Sberbank. Both Slavkin and Baryshev were arrested immediately after leaving Sberbank. No one showed up at Sberbank for the third transfer.
Levin again decided that he had been duped by his accomplices. Now he transferred the Metropolitan Bank money to a bank in London to pick up the cash in person.
Soon he got his visa, and bought a ticket to London. The Russian hacker flew to Heathrow at the beginning of the seventh hour of the evening. At the London airport he was eagerly awaited by Interpol representatives. Vladimir Levin was arrested, and six months later transferred to an American prison.
In the fall of 1996, Vladimir Levin was brought before the Federal Court of New York. The criminal was sentenced to 36 months in prison for illegally breaking into the Metropolitan Bank computer. At the end of 1998, Levin was released and deported to Russia.
