An online casino in Malta was robbed of €250k by a Finnish teenager whose parents are now on trial for sharing in his ill-gotten gains.
On Tuesday, Finnish media outlet YLE reported on a case of aggravated fraud currently winding its way through the Häme District Court involving a teenager from the town of Forssa who discovered a glitch in the software of an unspecified Malta-based online casino.
According to the report, the teenager – described as “now about 18 years old” – discovered that the casino software allowed him to cancel customers’ pending withdrawal requests and have the money transferred to an online wallet rather than the customers’ bank accounts.
The tech-savvy teen reportedly made 147 withdrawal requests in just one month, taking the unlucky — although lucky to have remained unidentified — gaming operator for a total of €250k before a site staffer discovered the theft in July 2017.
Prosecutors claim that the kids’ parents were accomplices in their son’s crimes, given that €14k of the stolen funds ended up in dad’s bank account, while mom’s account contained €2,300 in ill-gotten gains. Mom seems to have gotten the short end of the crooked stick here, although prosecutors allege that she also owned a €5k motorcycle that was purchased with the purloined cash.
Regardless of his youth at the time the thefts were committed, prosecutors are pushing for the now-legal teen to serve 20 months behind bars.
Prosecutors have charged the father with aggravated money laundering, for which they’re seeking a five-month suspended sentence. The report stated only that mom was facing a “more lenient suspended sentence” based on her own money laundering charges. The Court is expected to deliver its ruling on the matter early next month.
