A sophisticated hacking operation involving casino slot machines is one of the crimes alleged against 31 people charged in a series of indictments unsealed in U.S. District Court in Manhattan.
The alleged perpetrators, most with origins in the former Soviet Union, operated from New York City to Florida and as far West as Nevada and included illegal gambling dens, stolen cigarettes and drugging and robberies in their arsenal, according to federal prosecutors.
Most of those charged were accused of being part of a nationwide racketeering enterprise led by Razhden Shulaya of Edgewater, N.J., who faces racketeering conspiracy and other counts.
Shulaya, 40, was described in one indictment as a “vor v zakonei” or “vor,” which it said were Russian phrases that refer to “an order of elite criminals from the former Soviet Union” who, among other things, receive tribute from other criminals.
“As a vor,” the indictment said, “Shulaya had substantial influence in the criminal underworld and offered assistance to and protection of the members and associates” of the enterprise.
Details about the slot machine scheme were still sketchy as of this writing. It appears to date back to January, when Shulaya was overheard in a wire-tapped phone call discussing the testing of a computerized device that could predict the behavior of certain machines. In another call, he was told about the reconnaissance of a casino that featured a particular model of slot that would be susceptible to the device.
In April, the device was used in a casino near Philadelphia, netting the group more than $1,000, one of the indictments said.
