Pakistani Man Pleads Guilty in Connection to International Telecom Fraud Scam, Says FBI

A Pakistani citizen admitted to laundering more than $19.6 million in proceeds from an international telecom fraud scheme in which foreign-based hackers hijacked private branch exchange systems that ran the internal phone networks of businesses and other organizations in the U.S. Muhammad Sohail Qasmani, 47, pleaded guilty to one count of conspiracy to commit wire fraud, said the FBI in a Thursday news release. It said hackers placed calls on an organization's phone system to identify unused extensions and then illegally reprogrammed the system to make unlimited long distance calls that were charged back to the victimized organization. Qasmani, who was arrested in December 2014 at Los Angeles International Airport, faces up to 20 years in prison and a $250,000 fine. The agency identified the scheme's mastermind as Noor Aziz, 53, who's on the FBI's list of most wanted cybercriminals.