BankIslami may receive $5m after winning lawsuit

The hackers have been sentenced to 140 months in prison and fined $30 million by a US court

KARACHI: BankIslami has won a lawsuit in the US against hackers who carried out a cyber-attack and laundered millions of dollars in 2018, said a bank notice at PSX website.

The hackers have been sentenced to 140 months in prison and fined $30million by a US court.

Sources confirmed that the bank may receive $5 million out of the fine imposed on hackers.

The incident took place in October 2018 when some customers of BankIslami received text messages, alerting them that they have withdrawn money. Noticing the abnormal transactions of Rs 6.2 million, BankIslami blocked its international payment scheme on October 28, 2018.

It was a coordinated cyber-attack in which the payment network of BankIslami and the international payment scheme was compromised. Hackers made these transactions on international ATMs using cards issued by the bank.

The hackers had carried out several such attacks and stole data from several other banks around the world.

The case was initiated in the US when the US-Canadian leader of the hacker group was arrested after the incident, the State Bank of Pakistan instructed all commercial banks to ensure the security of all payment cards in the country and monitor usage of their cards, especially international transactions.

Banklslami later joined the criminal case conducted by the US Department of Justice against the subject money launderer, at the District Court of Southern District of Georgia. The Bank, being one of the victims, also filed its claim in the US court.

As per a Press Release issued by the US Department of Justice, USA Attorney’s Office, South District of Georgia, the case was concluded on September 7, 2021.

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