Bulgarian Charged in US over ATM Skimming 'Fled the Country'

Kenneth Lieux, Vasilev's attorney, said he hasn't seen or heard from his client in months. File photo

A Bulgarian national, suspected of attaching a card-reading device to a North Ridgeville ATM in May 2010, is believed to have fled the United States, local media reported.

Mihail Vasilev, 26, is also suspected to have forfeited the USD10,000 in cash he posted to be released from the Lorain County Jail on charges he had attached a card-reading device, prosecutors say, as cited by Chronicle-Telegram.

Lorain County Prosecutor Dennis Will said the cash that Mihail Vasilev, 26, had put up to secure his release will go into the county's general fund.

Kenneth Lieux, Vasilev's attorney, said he hasn't seen or heard from his client in months. He said the phone numbers and addresses he had for Vasilev are no longer good.

"I've exhausted all contact means that I have for him," Lieux said.

The U.S. Secret Service informed county Common Pleas Judge Mark Betleski and his staff earlier this year that they believed Vasilev flew to Germany last year. Betleski ordered the bond forfeited at a hearing Monday.

Charter One Bank employees discovered the card-reading device — commonly known as a "skimmer" — attached to the ATM outside the bank's Lorain Road branch.

North Ridgeville police located Vasilev eating ice cream in a parked car in a nearby restaurant parking lot. Inside the 1994 Honda Accord officers also found a laptop computer, two ringing cell phones, a GPS unit with several Toledo banks in its memory and 0 in bills hidden in a pair of gloves.

Vasilev, who is charged with safecracking and possession of criminal tools, told police he thought he was in Michigan and was waiting for a friend.

Police believe that Vasilev is part of a Bulgarian organization that uses data gathered by skimmers to clone bank cards and then withdraw money using PIN numbers obtained using video cameras that are also mounted to ATMs.

Authorities have said that Vasilev made more than one transfer of USD 10,000 — the amount at which federal law requires bank transactions to be reported to the government — from his bank account to Bulgaria.

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