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<h2 class="has-text-color has-normal-font-size wp-block-heading" style="color:#3c3636"><strong>Val Cooper, Alex Levin Garri Smith, 49, are accused of stealing over $30 million from more than two dozen European banks, between 2015 and 2019</strong></h2>



<h2 class="has-text-color has-normal-font-size wp-block-heading" style="color:#3c3636"><strong>Cooper, 56, Levin, 52, and Smith, 49, allegedly targeted more than two dozen banks in seven countries over the course of four years, and then sent the profits back to the US, according to Tuesday&#8217;s indictment </strong></h2>



<h2 class="has-text-color has-normal-font-size wp-block-heading" style="color:#3c3636"><strong>They used high tech camera equipment and sophisticated tools on specially targeted banks with poor security systems, federal prosecutors say </strong></h2>



<h2 class="has-text-color has-normal-font-size wp-block-heading" style="color:#3c3636"><strong>&#8216;The crimes we allege in this indictment read like something straight out of Hollywood fiction,&#8217; Feds said </strong></h2>



<h2 class="has-text-color has-normal-font-size wp-block-heading" style="color:#3c3636"><strong>They executed their scheme in the Ukraine, Russia, North Macedonia, Moldova, Latvia, Uzbekistan and Azerbaijan, according to prosecutors</strong></h2>



<h2 class="has-text-color has-normal-font-size wp-block-heading" style="color:#3c3636"><strong>They trio only face money laundering charges, rather than theft, because alleged heists happened outside the US</strong></h2>



<h2 class="has-text-color has-normal-font-size wp-block-heading" style="color:#3c3636"><strong>They face up to 20 years in imprisonment, if convicted on money laundering conspiracy </strong></h2>



<h2 class="has-text-color has-normal-font-size wp-block-heading" style="color:#3c3636"><strong>They&#8217;re also charged with violating the Travel Act, which prohibits international and interstate travel with the intent to commit crimes </strong></h2>



<h2 class="has-text-color has-normal-font-size wp-block-heading" style="color:#3c3636"><strong>Indictment also lists unnamed co-conspirator</strong></h2>



<figure class="wp-block-image size-large"><img src="https://konniemoments.com/wp-content/uploads/2021/04/Unnamed-robber-left-who-cospired-with-bank-robber-Garri-Smtih-right-1-1024x489.jpg" alt="" class="wp-image-377520"/><figcaption><strong>A co-conspirator in the high tech heists [photo, left] who remains unnamed, allegedly breaks into a safety deposit box in a Riga, Latvia bank on Dec. 19, 2017. Garri Smith, [right] allegedly returned the following Jan, to ransack some more</strong></figcaption></figure>



<p>Three middleaged men from Brooklyn, New York have been arrested on money laundering charges for an alleged heist reminiscent of the hollywood movie &#8216;Oceanss 13&#8217;, where they used high-tech equipment to steal $30million in valuables from bank vaults across Europe.<br>In a plot prosecutors described as &#8216;Hollywood-style&#8217;, Val Cooper, 56, Alex Levin, 52, and Garri Smith, 49, allegedly targeted more than two dozen banks in seven countries over the course of four years, and then shipped the proceeds back to the US, prosecutors say.<br>Posing as genuine customers, the trio would rent their own safety deposit boxes in &#8216;foreign banks that appeared to lack certain security features, including video surveillance cameras in certain areas&#8217;, according to the federal indictment.<br>Once inside the vault, they used high tech camera equipment like a borescope, which is typically used in medical procedures, to photograph the inside lock mechanisms of other people&#8217;s boxes, prosecutors said. <br>Those photos were allegedly used to make duplicate keys, allowing them to return to the vault and simply open other people&#8217;s boxes to steal the items inside.<br>&#8220;The defendants and their co-conspirators were allegedly part of a sophisticated network of criminals that used high-tech camera equipment to steal millions in cash and other valuables from victims who had tried to protect their property by using safe deposit boxes in foreign countries, and they then laundered the proceeds of their scheme through the United States financial system,&#8221; said Acting United States Attorney Mark J. Lesko in a statement.</p>



<figure class="wp-block-image size-large is-resized"><img src="https://konniemoments.com/wp-content/uploads/2021/04/Garri-Smith-5.jpg" alt="" class="wp-image-377539" width="838" height="471"/><figcaption><strong>Using their blueprint the robbers would create duplicate keys so that they could open safe-deposit boxes and steal what was inside, <strong>prosecutors say </strong></strong></figcaption></figure>



<p>&#8216;The crimes we allege in this indictment read like something straight out of Hollywood fiction,&#8217; FBI Assistant Director-in-Charge William Sweeney said in a statement. <br>&#8216;The thieves used sophisticated tools to thwart security systems at foreign banks, mostly in Eastern European countries, and tried to cover their tracks by laundering money through U.S. banks.&#8217;<br>The three men executed the same scheme in more than two dozen banks in the Ukraine, Russia, North Macedonia, Moldova, Latvia, Uzbekistan and Azerbaijan between March 2015 to October 2019, prosecutors sad.<br>When asked, federal prosecutors said they couldn&#8217;t comment on the exact number of banks they hit, their exact locations, or how they were ultimately caught. <br>But prosecutors laid out a timeline of one of the alleged robberies in the federal indictment as an example of how the scheme works. <br>The target was a bank in Riga, Latvia. Cooper allegedly emailed a video of a safety deposit box for sale to Levin on July 11, 2017. Smith would return to the Latvia bank on Jan. 15, 2018 and emptied multiple boxes into his bags, according to federal prosecutors. <br>The group made off with currency, gold bars, jewelry and other valuables, and sent the proceeds to bank accounts in the United States, according to court documents. </p>



<figure class="wp-block-image size-large"><img src="https://konniemoments.com/wp-content/uploads/2021/04/Garri-Smith-4-1024x558.jpg" alt="" class="wp-image-377524"/><figcaption><strong>Smith [L-R], and a co-conspirator were allegedly caught on security cameras in a bank vault during a heist in Riga, Latvia</strong></figcaption></figure>



<p>An unnamed co-conspirator bought Smith a plane ticket and hotel room in Riga on Dec. 31, 2017 and Jan. 1, 2018, respectively, according to the indictment. <br>Smith allegedly went into the Riga bank with duplicate keys and inspected all the safety deposit boxes on Jan. 4, 2018. <br>Between Jan. 4 and Jan. 15, 2018, a plane ticket and hotel room were bought for Cooper, according to the indictment. <br>On Jan. 15, 2018, Smith, &#8216;together with others&#8217; allegedly stole property in the safety deposit boxes and left. <br>They later met with Cooper at the Riga hotel, where they split the proceeds before flying back to the US, according to the indictment. </p>



<figure class="wp-block-image size-large"><img src="https://konniemoments.com/wp-content/uploads/2021/04/Val-Cooper-3-1024x508.jpg" alt="" class="wp-image-377527"/><figcaption><strong>An unnamed co-conspirator [face redacted] and Val Cooper [right], who prosecutors named as the head of the safe deposit scavenge scheme, met in a Latvia hotel to split the proceeds, which were then sent to US bank accounts. </strong></figcaption></figure>



<p>They traveled around the world committing modern day bank heists using fake passports, according to court documents. <br>Agents raided Cooper’s home on Tuesday and discovered safe deposit box keys with no numbering on them, cash, jewelry and high-end handbags. They also executed a search warrant against a storage unit allegedly belonging to Cooper in Brooklyn and found a borescope and a safe deposit box lock. <br>Prosecutors named Cooper as the group&#8217;s ringleader. But, his attorny Tony Mirvis <a href="https://www.cnn.com/2021/04/22/us/us-money-laundering-indictment-trnd/index.html">said</a> , &#8216;Mr. Cooper is innocent until proven guilty&#8217;. <br>&#8216;There is a lot more to this case than the government has presented in its press release and as the case progresses, I anticipate his innocence will become clear.&#8217; <br>Levin was allegedly the moneyman behind the scheme, and purchased the high-tech camera equipment, according to court documents. <br>Levin&#8217;s attorneys also <a rel="noreferrer noopener" target="_blank" href="https://www.nbcnews.com/news/us-news/three-new-york-men-arrested-accused-pulling-30-million-international-n1265061">maintain</a> that their client might have bought some of equipment but said it doesn&#8217;t make him a criminal.</p>



<figure class="wp-block-image size-large"><img src="https://konniemoments.com/wp-content/uploads/2021/04/Borescope-left-a-piece-of-high-tech-camera-equipment-used-to-sophisticated-robbers-to-photograph-the-inside-lock-mechanisms-of-victims-safety-deposit-boxes-in-target-banks-1.jpg" alt="" class="wp-image-377530"/><figcaption><strong>The suspects allegedly used high tech camera equipment, such as a borescope [left], to photograph the inside lock mechanisms of victims&#8217; safety deposit boxes, then made duplicate keys. Investigators found one inside a safe deposit lock box in Brooklyn, belonging to Cooper</strong></figcaption></figure>



<p>&#8216;Levin&#8217;s actions of obtaining the items, however, without the knowledge of what the items were going to be used for, is not a crime,&#8217; his lawyer, Nicholas Dayan, told NBC.com. <br>Levin was arrested Tuesday and released after posting $500,000 bond.<br>Smith was ordered held without bail following his arrest Tuesday.<br>There were also unnamed co-conspirators listed in the indictment. <br>They men only face money laundering charges in the US, rather than theft, because the alleged heists were carried out in other countries. If convicted of money laundering conspiracy, the defendants face up to 20 years in imprisonment. <br>The defendants are also charged with <a rel="noreferrer noopener" href="https://www.law.cornell.edu/uscode/text/18/1952" target="_blank">violating the Travel Act</a>, which prohibits international and interstate travel with the intent to commit crimes, the indictment states.</p>

Feds charge three Brooklyn men who used state-of-the-art technology to target bank safety deposit boxes in more than 20 banks across Europe, looting valuables worth $30M, ‘Hollywood style’
