'Modern-Day Bank Robbers' Busted In Brooklyn For $30M Scheme: Fed

BROOKLYN, NY — A group of "modern-day bank robbers" who used high-tech medical cameras to steal millions from safety deposit boxes in Eastern Europe have been busted in Brooklyn, prosecutors announced.

Val Cooper, Alex Levin and Garri Smith were all arrested Tuesday morning for an elaborate years-long scheme that spanned seven countries and raked in more than $30 million, according to the U.S. Attorney for the Eastern District.

“The crimes we allege in this indictment read like something straight out of Hollywood fiction,” FBI Assistant Director-in-Charge William Sweeney said. “The thieves used sophisticated tools to thwart security systems at foreign banks and tried to cover their tracks by laundering money through U.S. banks."

The "sophisticated criminal network," led by Cooper, committed at least two dozen bank heists in Eastern Europe between 2015 and 2019, including in Ukraine, Russia, North Macedonia, Moldova, Latvia, Uzbekistan and Azerbaijan, according to prosecutors.

Targeting foreign banks that seemed to lack security or surveillance cameras, the group would pose as a customer and rent a safety deposit box, according to the indictment.

Then, using high-tech cameras known as "borescopes" that are usually used in medical procedures, they would take pictures of what was inside other safety deposit boxes at the bank, using the photos to duplicate the keys, prosecutors said.

"Once inside the room alone...they opened others’ boxes, filled their bags with stolen property – including jewelry, money, gold bars and other materials – and walked out the front door of the bank," investigators wrote.

Cooper, Smith and Levin — who are U.S. citizens born in Eastern Europe — would then use U.S.-based bank accounts to transfer and launder the money from their heists, including by using overseas money brokers to send the funds, prosecutors said. They are charged with money laundering conspiracy and conspiracy to violate the Travel Act, which bars using mail or interstate commerce for criminal activity.

Investigators searching Cooper's house and storage unit in Brooklyn found safe deposit box keys with no numbering on them, cash, jewelry, high-end handbags, a borescope and a safe deposit box lock, prosectors said.

The leaders of the crime ring had eluded law enforcement for years by using fraudulent passports, aliases and legally changing their names in the United States to avoid being caught, according to the indictment.

Cooper even tried to bribe undercover officers in Ukraine when a co-conspirator was caught in the country and was recorded telling another co-conspirator to lie to officials. He claimed to have high-level contacts in the Ukrainian government, according to the court papers.

Both Cooper and Levin have criminal histories, prosecutors said, including a 2000 case when Levin pleaded guilty to being involved in a $100-million stock manipulation scheme, prosecutors said.

The prosectors plan to request all three defendants be detained while awaiting their trials. Cooper, Levin and Smith will be arraigned Tuesday afternoon.