Money Mule Network Boss Pleads Guilty After Fake Job Ads Lured 15,000 People Into Laundering Cybercrime Cash

Oleg Korniev, a 42-year-old dual citizen of Ukraine and Russia, has pleaded guilty in U.S. federal court. He was a principal of Your Mule Cashout, known as YMCO, an international organisation that laundered money for cybercriminals from 2007 until 2014. It used more than 15,000 unwitting money mules across the U.S., Germany, Italy, the United Kingdom and Australia.

YMCO recruited people through websites for fake companies advertising jobs. Applicants went through what looked like a genuine hiring process, including an employment test, a contract and a company policy review. They were then asked to upload their bank details to a fictitious company website and told their role was to receive money into their accounts and transfer it to legitimate company accounts overseas. Under Korniev, YMCO laundered at least $10 million for hackers who used malware to break into 750 U.S. bank accounts. Funds were mostly wired to Eastern Europe through Western Union or MoneyGram, where cash-out contractors collected them and, for a cut, returned the money to YMCO.

Korniev was arrested in North Carolina last December, nearly nine years after he was indicted. He pleaded guilty to money laundering, conspiracy to commit computer fraud, conspiracy to commit access device theft and aggravated identity theft, and faces between two and 50 years in prison. Four Ukrainians linked to YMCO were sentenced in 2018 to between 37 and 63 months in prison.