On Thursday, a man from Florida was apprehended for his participation in a bribery scheme targeted at supporting an illegal exchange of bitcoins operated by his son and owned by an Israeli behind a series of hacking attacks on establishments such as JPMorgan Chase & Co.
According to The Hill, Michael Murgio has been charged with an involvement of a plan to bribe a credit union official to aid the operations of an illegal bitcoin exchange. Murgio has been listed on an indictment charging three other men, including his son, Anthony.
Prosecutors said that Gery Shalon, who owns Coin.mx, was one of the three men behind a series of hacks, which includes a major one that hit JPMorgan. The hacking affected more than 83 million small business and individual accounts. Shalon, Joshua Samuel Aaron, and Ziv Orenstein were charged with securities fraud, wire fraud, and hacking. The indictment describes the hack as the largest theft of client data from a financial institution in the history of US.
The charges on Tuesday expand a case that was first announced in July. US Attorney Preet Bharara said at a press conference in Manhattan that the data breaches at these institutions are "breathtaking" in scope and size, reports St. Louis Post-Dispatch.
Michael Murgio, a former school board in Palm Beach Count, was charged in an indictment filed in Manhattan's federal court. Reuters reported that the 65-year-old was arrested by the FBI on Thursday and was later released on a $250,000 bond, following a hearing in West Palm Beach's federal court.
An indictment in 2014 reads that Murgio paid $150,000 in bribes to the chairman of the Helping Other People Excel Federal Credit Union. In 2014, they acquired control of the New Jersey-based company to get into the credit union, which they used to evade any detection.
Murgio and the other men have previously pleaded not guilty to the charges thrown at them. The men will face trial on Oct. 31.
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