Criminals caught in Bogota embezzlement scandal

Police have captured six people involved in embezzling money from Armed Forces’ retirement funds in Bogota, police said Monday.

Allegedly $275,000 belonging to 29 retired generals was illegally removed in less than a month, between May 26 and June 16, 2011, from four different ATMs situated throughout Colombia’s capital.

As a result of an investigation that started a year ago, authorities captured six people responsible for the scandal. Police are currently searching for the main proprietor, an engineer that worked for the pension organization and installed software on their computers to steal information.

Officials said that the crimes were carried out with the use of a program called Team Viewer, which was designed to obtain remote access to desktop computers. With this the group was able to manipulate the information captured and modify the bank accounts of retired military members.

Once captured, the engineer will be accused of abusing access to informational systems, violation of data, and illicit transfer of assets. Among other crimes, the six detained criminals will be charged with theft, conspiracy and falsifying of documents both public and private.

During the operation authorities also seized six computer devices, two phone cards, a USB memory stick, and supporting documents of irregular transactions.

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