Five Venezuelan nationals have pleaded guilty in a US court to attempting to steal money from ATMs.
The defendants, Luis Alberto Velasquez-Artigas, 27, Royder Adrian Figuera-Perez, 29, Javier Mejia, Jr, 27, Gabriel Alexjandro Corales-Garcia, 33, and Italo Lizandro Corrales-Carrillo, 26, attempted to install malware on ATMs in Wamego and Manhattan, Kansas.
According to court documents, in December 2025, the five individuals traveled from Indiana for their attempted ATM jackpotting operation.
The defendants planned to install malware on ATMs and then remotely activate it to force the device to dispense cash.
Both their attempts were unsuccessful, but both were caught by surveillance cameras. The five defendants were arrested days later.
According to the US Department of Justice, all five pleaded guilty to conspiracy to commit bank larceny. Velasquez-Artigas was sentenced to nine months in prison, while the other four are awaiting sentencing.
“This case highlights a growing trend the FBI and our law enforcement partners are seeing nationwide involving a scheme known as ‘jackpotting’,” FBI Kansas City Special Agent in Charge Chris Ormerod said.
In February 2026, the FBI warned that ATM jackpotting incidents have been increasing across the US. Over 1,900 such incidents have occurred since 2020, with over 700 of them (causing more than $20 million in losses) registered in 2025 alone.
Last week, the US announced that 27-year-old Venezuelan national Juan Manuel Gouveia-Aguilera was sentenced to 96 months in prison and 5 years of supervised release for his role in an ATM jackpotting scheme.
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