The Finnish teenager who scammed a six-figure sum from a Malta-based online gambling site has been convicted, along with his parents.
Last month, Finland media reported on the bizarre case of an unidentified 16-year-old male Finn who’d discovered a glitch in the unidentified gambling site’s software that allowed him to cancel other gamblers’ withdrawal requests and redirect the outgoing cash to his online wallet.
YLE News reported that the teen appeared in Häme District Court on Monday to receive his suspended sentence of 20 months. The teen apparently got off lucky due to the fact that he was a minor at the time the crimes were committed between April and May 2017.
The YLE report also appeared to lower the total amount that was scammed from the site. Originally reported as over €250k, Monday’s article indicated that the teen was ordered to repay €132k and to pay €3k to cover the gambling operator’s legal fees.
However, it’s unclear whether the moneys that ended up in accounts belonging to his parents were included in this sum. The father and mother faced their own reckoning on Monday, receiving five-month and 60-day suspended sentences, respectively, for their role in Junior’s escapades and enjoying the forbidden fruits of his labors.
Dad was convicted of aggravated money laundering and ordered to repay €14,500 that had been transferred to his account. Mom was convicted of simple money laundering and ordered to repay €2,300 and forfeit a motorcycle worth over €5k that was obtained using the stolen cash.
All three defendants have the right to appeal their sentences, but one suspects they’re just happy to have gotten off so lightly. The parents are likely equally relieved by the fact their son’s minor status prevents the court from identifying them by name, lest their son’s identify be revealed in the process.
Finally, the casino site is likely content to have been spared the embarrassment of having to cop to the fact that they were taken to the cleaners by a spotty kid who proved a better bug-catcher than their own IT squad.
