Three Sentenced for Stealing 139,000 GEL from Commercial Bank Consumers

Three individuals have been sentenced for stealing 139,000 GEL from consumers of Bank of Georgia and TBC Bank via a phishing scheme, announced the Prosecutor’s Office of Georgia.

Tbilisi City Court sentenced citizens M.D. and M.A. to eight years in prison, ordering a fine of 40,000 GEL for each, while M.B. was sentenced to five years and six months in prison.

The investigation established that the detainees spread advertisements on Facebook, which attracted users onto pages that resemble the websites of  Georgian commercial banks and asked them to input account information which the perpetrators then used to funnel money into their own accounts.

The individuals were convicted on charges of unauthorized access to a computer system, unauthorized storage of computer data, unauthorized creation, storage and distribution of computer programs, as well as theft. 

They were detained back in April 2019, the Prosecutor’s Office reports. 

By Ana Dumbadze 

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