Foreigner held over ATM fraud has ties with Bangladeshi businessmen, police say

Police say they have information that the foreigner held over the recent ATM fraud has 'ties with several Bangladeshi businessmen'.

Police are investigating whether the alleged links between Ukrainian Piotr Szcdepan Mazurek and the Bangladeshi businessmen are based on sending people abroad or ATM fraud.

Dhaka Metropolitan Police spokesperson Monirul Islam on Monday shared with journalists about what they have learned.

But the additional commissioner posted at Detective Branch would not reveal the identity of those businessmen in question.

Police arrested Ukraine national Mazurek, who they say had entered Bangladesh with a Polish passport, at Gulshan in Dhaka on Sunday.

City Bank employees Rezaul Karim Shahin, Refat Abedin, and Moksed Ali Maksud have also been arrested for their alleged link with the ATM fraud.

A court has granted police six days to grill the four in a case under the ICT Act.

In a police complaint filed on Feb 14, United Commercial Bank (UCB) said CCTV camera footage had revealed a foreigner installing, at an ATM, a skimming device meant to steal account information.

The UCB and City Bank later filed two cases over the fraud.

Police then said five men of eastern European origin, who resembled the man from the surveillance footage, were under their watch.

A German ID card was also found on Mazurek during the arrest, police said.

A DB official told bdnews24.com the Ukrainian has arrest warrants out for him on charges of similar crimes in Romania, Russia, and Bulgaria.  

This is the first arrest of any foreigner over cyber crime in Bangladesh, he said.

A police statement says Mazurek belongs to a gang of international fraudsters and that he had planned the theft along with another Ukrainian and a Bulgarian national.

In the recent fraud in Bangladesh, devices and video cameras were installed at six booths of the UCB, Eastern Bank Limited (EBL) and City Bank to steal client information.

Altogether, 1,200 transactions had taken place after the installation of the skimming devices. As many as 40 bankcards were cloned to withdraw Tk 2 million, media reports said citing police sources.

DB official Monirul Islam told the media conference the four arrestees have admitted to having drawn money in similar ways before.

"They used international cards at the time. Now they used local cards for the first time and got caught," he said.

He hoped more information about the ring and the name of its other members would be revealed during the grilling.

Another DB official said Mazurek, another foreigner and another Bangladeshi are allegedly linked with the fraud.

"They have already gone abroad," he added.

He said Mazurek came to Bangladesh in December 2014, citing business purposes.

He stayed at 'Holiday Planet' in Gulshan for several months first and then shifted to a rented house in the same area after marrying a Bangladeshi woman. They have a child.

'Bank officials involved'

Police said Mazurek was arrested on Sunday, a claim his lawyer has denied.

The lawyer has alleged police had arrested him a week ago but did not produce him before court within 24 hours of the arrest, which the law requires. The lawyer also claims police tortured the foreigner.

Of the three City Bank employees, Maksud was arrested based on information Mazurek had provided during initial interrogation, police said.

The two others, Shahin and Abedin, had been arrested on information Maksud provided.

The three were in charge of point of sale transactions at the bank, their colleagues said.

DB official Islam said, "It would not have been possible without the help of people in the bank."

City Bank CEO Sohail RK Hussain told bdnews24.com the bank was investigating the matter.

"All departments have been asked to take firm steps against anyone linked to any irregularities," he said.