Two Ukrainians Held In Bosnia On Suspicion Of Stealing $1.5 Million From Russia’s Sberbank ATMs

Two of three Ukrainian men suspected of stealing the equivalent of $1.51 million from automated-teller machines (ATMs) operated by a Russian state-owned bank in Bosnia-Herzegovina have been placed in pretrial detention for one month, local media reported over the weekend.

Dmytro Boyko and Oleksandr Zaytsev were arrested on February 2 in Bihac, a city of more than 56,000 inhabitants.

A third suspect, Yaroslav Tytarenko, is still at large and entered Hungary the next day, according to Bosnian police.

All three entered Bosnia via Serbia on January 31 and were believed to have been residing in Montenegro and Serbia as well, local police said.

Approximately $60,000 in local currency was found on the two apprehended suspects who solely targeted ATMs belonging to Sberbank, Russia's largest lender.

Police said the arrested suspects weren't cooperating with authorities and didn't provide details of their actions, which saw them allegedly withdraw the money over a span of 53 hours.

The Russian state-owned bank told the Sarajevo Times that the remaining stolen money was still missing.

RFE/RL learned of the alleged theft last week after speaking to customers who tried using Sberbank ATMs.

Sberbank's in-country network of ATMs is operating normally and money wasn’t stolen from any client accounts, Vedran Persic, director of communications and marketing at Sberbank BiH, told RFE/RL.

Computer-hacking tools were used to withdraw the money, Vahidan Djaltur, a permanent court expert on information and communications, told RFE/RL.

Based on reporting by the Sarajevo Times and Vijesti