A 43-year-old man has been given time to put his family affairs in order as he faces the prospect of being jailed for a series of cybercrime offences including offering people computer software designed to disrupt IT systems as well as false bank accounts and credit cards.
Suleman Mazhar, previously of Fort Hill, Moneygourney, Douglas, Cork appeared at Cork Circuit Criminal Court where he pleaded guilty to two counts of cyber fraud including one of money laundering cryptocurrency worth €80,000 at the time of the offence but is now worth €200,000.
Mazhar pleaded guilty to dishonestly operating a computer between September 2nd, 2020, and March 11th, 2022, with the intention of making a gain for himself or cause loss to another by obtaining payments for goods and services offered for sale at a website, cashoutempire.com.
And he also pleaded guilty that between June 1st, 2020, and July 1st, 2021, he held cryptocurrency in a Coinbase account, knowing that it was the proceeds of crime and that he converted, transferred, acquired, possessed or used that money contrary to money-laundering legislation.
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Det Sgt Wes Kenny of the Garda National Cyber Crime Unit told the court that gardai were examining some illegal activity on the web and traced the offending to a website being operated by Mazhar where he was offering people a number of illegal products and services.
He was offering people false bank accounts and credit cards as well as malware, which is software that is designed to disrupt or damage IT systems, and ransomware, which similarly disrupts IT operating systems until a ransom is paid by the victim of the cyberattack.
Gardaí moved to arrest to Mazhar and seized a large amount of cryptocurrency consisting of bitcoin, ethereum, litecoin, dogecoin, monero, XLM, dash and cardano and while it was worth €80,000 at the time it was seized it was now worth €200,000, said Det Sgt Kenny.
He said that Mazhar was questioned by gardaí and replied “No comment” to all questions at interview. The case was listed for trial but in advance of trial the accused entered a guilty plea in respect of a charge arising out of the investigation.
Det Sgt Kenny agreed with defence counsel Jane Hyland SC that there was no evidence of anyone else being involved in the fraud operation and that Mazhar was operating on his own, while he also agreed Mazhar had spared the State a lengthy and complex trial by pleading guilty.
Ms Hyland pleaded for leniency, saying her client had come from Pakistan to Ireland in 2002 with his family, who operated a chip shop on the South Circular Road in Dublin and that he had later moved to Cork with his partner and their three children, but that relationship had since ended.
She said Mazhar was always very interested in computers but he struggled with Irish while in secondary school, which affected his ability to go to further education and get any formal qualifications in computing, but he set up his own business designing websites.
She said Mazhar got into a trajectory that led to him to offending when his relationship broke down, but he accepted full responsibility for it and he had “deep regret” over it all and he accepted his “judgment was extremely poor, and he found the entire experience difficult”.
Judge Helen Boyle noted Ms Hyland’s submissions and that Mazhar by his plea had spared the State a lengthy trial with “complex components” and she acceded to a defence application to allow Mazhar attend to some family matters and adjourned sentencing until May 9th.
