U.S. federal prosecutors in South Carolina have announced that two Venezuelan nationals convicted in an ATM jackpotting scheme will be deported after completing their prison sentences.
The suspects were found guilty of stealing hundreds of thousands of dollars from U.S. banks by infecting ATMs with malware.
The convicted individuals are 34-year-old Luz Granados and 40-year-old Johan Gonzalez-Jimenez. Both previously pleaded guilty to conspiracy and computer crime charges for targeting older Automated Teller Machine models across several southeastern states.
According to prosecutors, the pair carried out the attacks at night by opening ATM casings and connecting laptops directly to the machines. They then installed malware that bypassed built-in security protections, forcing the ATMs to dispense all available cash. The stolen money came directly from banks, not individual customer accounts.
The attacks affected financial institutions in South Carolina, Georgia, North Carolina, and Virginia. The U.S. Justice Department said the malware allowed the machines to release cash continuously until they were fully emptied.
U.S. District Judge Mary Geiger Lewis sentenced Gonzalez-Jimenez to 18 months in federal prison and ordered him to pay $285,100 in restitution before deportation. Granados was sentenced to time served and ordered to repay $126,340. She remains in custody awaiting deportation.
Evidence from the South Carolina investigation was later shared with authorities in Nebraska. This led to a federal grand jury in Nebraska indicting 54 individuals in a larger ATM jackpotting conspiracy that allegedly stole millions of dollars from ATMs nationwide.
Among those named in the Nebraska case is Jimena Romina Araya Navarro, an entertainer accused of being one of the leaders of the Venezuelan gang Tren de Aragua. She was sanctioned in December by the Office of Foreign Assets Control.
Prosecutors said the attackers used a variant of Ploutus malware, which was installed by removing ATM hard drives, using infected replacement drives, or deploying external devices such as USB thumb drives. Once activated, the malware enabled unauthorized withdrawals and erased traces of the attack to avoid detection.
If this article helped you, please consider supporting our work. Every small contribution keeps Abijita.com independent and running.
Last month, the U.S. Department of Justice also announced that five additional Venezuelan nationals involved in similar ATM jackpotting schemes across multiple U.S. states are facing immediate deportation after being sentenced or pleading guilty.
