A 68-year old U.S. citizen who lived in Ukraine, Harold Sobel, was indicted by a grand jury in the District of Nevada on Aug. 24 for conspiracy to make false statements to a bank and two counts of false statements to banks, the U.S. Department of Justice (DOJ) reported.
Sobel had traveled from Ukraine to the U.S. on two occasions – in October 2019 and February 2020 – where he allegedly used his identity to open accounts at federally insured banks. Sobel would then transfer control over the bank accounts to a co-conspirator who would impersonate Sobel in communications with the bank.
A conspiracy charge carries a sentence of up to five years in prison, while making a false statement to a bank can lead to 30 years in prison under U.S. law.
Sobel was arrested on Aug. 12 at the McCarran International Airport in Las Vegas, Nevada, before he could depart to Ukraine.
Sobel was also involved in another civil complaint unsealed by DOJ regarding a transnational network of fraudsters, including people named Guy Benoit and Edward Courdy.
“The scheme alleged in these cases involves an elaborate plot to reach into consumers’ bank accounts and steal their hard-earned savings,” said Acting Assistant Attorney General Brian M. Boynton for the Justice Department’s Civil Division.
The network allegedly stole millions of dollars from American consumers by charging unauthorized debits against their bank accounts and covering their tracks by using sham companies to make the unauthorized debits look legitimate.
The investigation was led by the U.S. Postal Inspection Service.
