July 12 2016
Unemployed Kazbek Varitlov, 33, of Wesley Avenue, Silvertown, was sentenced to seven and a half months behind bars at Southwark Crown Court after pleading guilty to conspiracy to defraud the UK Clearing Banks between January 1 2014 and November 10 2014. On November 9 2014, five business bank accounts were compromised by cyber-criminals who transferred almost a million pounds into accounts opened by employees of gang-leaders Aslan Gergov and Aslan Abazov.
The cash was then laundered through 166 so-called mule accounts before being withdrawn – usually between €2,000 and 4,000 at a time – across the capital. Varitlov was arrested, together with fellow mule Andrejs Ignatjevs, trying to buy large sums of Euros from foreign exchange shops at Heathrow Airport.